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LANCASTER'S 

GOLDEN 

CENTURY 




LANCASTER'S 
GOLDEN 
CENTURY 4^1^ 

1821-1921 

cA Chronicle of cMen and Women who 

Planned and Toiled to Build a City 

Strong and beautiful 



WRITTEN AND COMPILED BY 

H. M. J. KLEIN 

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN FRANKLIN 
AND MARSHALL COLLEGE 



PUBLISHED BY 

HAGER AND BRO. 

TO COMMEMORATE 

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF THE HOUSE OF HAGEE?. 

APRIL, 1 92 I 




ERECTED 1783-1785. TAKEN DOWN MAY, 1853. 

OLD COURT HOUSE 



COPYRIGHT, 1 92 1 
HAGER & BROTHER 



Wickersham Printing Company 

Lancaster, Pa. 

192t 



APR -8 1921 
©CI.A6115:J3 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

CHAPTER I 
The First Hundred Years I 

CHAPTER II 
The Lancaster of 182 1 24 

CHAPTER III 
A Period of Development 46 

CHAPTER IV 
James Buchanan, the Citizen 62 

CHAPTER V 
Lancaster and the Civil War 80 

CHAPTER VI 
Notable Men and Women 91 

CHAPTER VII 
Centenary Firms 105 

CHAPTER VIII 
The Spirit of Lancaster 122 




TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH 



LANCASTEK'S 

GOLDEN 

CENTURY 








CHAPTER I 

THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS 



HE story of Lancaster is the narrative of 
the rise and growth of a quaint old in- 
land colonial town, and of its develop- 
ment into a prosperous American city. It is the 
story of a community whose roots and springs 
run deep into the soil of the past, whose influences 
reach far and wide in the shaping of a larger life 
for the Commonwealth and the Nation. 

So far as is known the first white man to 
set foot on Lancaster County soil was a young 
Frenchman by the name of Brule who acted as 
guide and interpreter of the great explorer, 
Samuel Champlain. Early in the eighteenth cen- 
tury, French traders came to what is now Lan- 
caster County in order to carry on barter with the 
Shawanese Indians, located near the mouth of 
Pequea creek. 



2 Lancaster's golden century 

In the days when there was trouble between the 
French and English in America, the governor 
of the province of Pennsylvania, John Evans, 
made several visits to the Indian settlements in 
Lancaster County in order to ascertain the loyalty 
of the Shawanese to the province of Pennsylvania 
and to the interest of Queen Anne. 

In 1 709 a colony of Mennonites from the moun- 
tain regions of Switzerland occupied the rich lands 
along the Conestoga under the leadership of Hans 
Herr and began to make Lancaster County the 
richest agricultural region in the United States. 
Then came the Huguenot families — the Ferree, 
LeFevre, DuBois — strong men and women who 
located in the Pequea valley and who became the 
forebears of some of our most distinguished citi- 
zens. They were speedily followed by the Scotch- 
Irish and the Quaker, and still later by the 
Palatine. 

The three original counties of Pennsylvania 
were Philadelphia, Bucks, and Chester. By an 
Act of May 10, 1729, Lancaster County was 
separated from Chester, and was given its name 
by John Wright, a native of Lancaster, England, 
one of the first settlers in this region. When 
originally formed, Lancaster County included a 
very large area. It has since been gradually re- 
duced to its present limits by the establishment of 
York, Cumberland, Berks, Northumberland, 
Dauphin and Lebanon counties. To-day it in- 
cludes 928 square miles, its greatest length from 



"tHE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS ^ 

north to south being 40 miles, and from east to 
west about 45 miles. There is perhaps no county 
in Pennsylvania possessing such an amount and 
variety of the sources of natural wealth. It is 
indeed a land flowing with milk and honey. 
There are no waste lands ; no worn-out fields. One 
must travel far in order to find a more picturesque 
spot or a region touched with such a diversity of 
physical wealth and beauty or such rich historical 
associations as are to be found in this Garden 
Spot of the United States. 

The radiant loveliness of the country immedi- 
ately around Lancaster renders it the most de- 
lightful of cities. The beauty of the past goes 
with you at every step. Lancaster is a town that 
has real claims to antiquity and yet space enough 
for nature to flourish at ease. She has long borne 
in the history of the State and of the Nation a 
distinct position. On her streets has been heard 
for well-nigh two centuries the busy hum of men. 

Just when the first settlement on the site of 
Lancaster City was made is not known. We do 
know that Andrew Hamilton owned a large plot 
of land which he divided into town lots and sold 
on easy ground-rent terms to purchasers. We do 
know that some of those who had taken up land 
were living here in 1 72 1 — two hundred years ago 
. — and formed an embryo village called " Hickory 
Town " or " Gibson's Pasture ". It is said that 
George Gibson kept a tavern in front of which 
stood a large hickory tree — after which the town 



4 LANCASTER'S GOLDEN CENTURY 

was named. The town site was said to have been 
covered with w^oods and two swamps known as 
" Dark Hazel Swamp " and " Long Swamp " oc- 
cupied the lowest ground. 

When Andrew Hamilton laid out Lancaster in 
1730 on the 500-acre tract of land he owned, 
there were two hundred inhabitants in the town. 
It was through his son, James Hamilton, that the 
village was turned into a borough in i 742. James 
Hamilton was a man of considerable prominence 
in his day, a member of the provincial assembly, 
mayor of Philadelphia, and governor of the 
province. That he was wide-awake and liberal 
is evidenced by the fact that he donated building 
lots to at least eight religious organizations in 
Lancaster. 

Thomas Cookson, the first Chief Burgess came 
from England. In the robing room of St. James' 
Episcopal Church is a stone with the following in- 
scription upon it: " Here are interred the Remains 
of Thomas Cookson (Late of Richmond, in York- 
shire, Great Britain), Esquire. He held and dis- 
charged with integrity several of the first offices 
in this county of Lancaster and thereby, and by 
his generous Benefaction to this Church, as well 
as many good offices to his Neighbors, he de- 
servedly acquired the esteem of mankind. He 
died the 20th day of March 1753 aged 43 years." 

In the same year in which Lancaster was in- 
corporated as a borough. Count Zinzendorf the 
great Moravian missionary came to this vicinity 



THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS 5 

to help the Shawanese Indians. They at first 
were alarmed when Zinzendorf and his little com- 
pany set up their tents on the banks of the Sus- 
quehanna. But his kindly manner and the ar- 
rival of Conrad Weiser soon afterward won the 
friendship and confidence of the Indians for the 
great Zinzendorf. 

A Treaty was made in 1744 at Lancaster be- 
tween the Chiefs of the Six Nations and the 
governors of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Mary- 
land. It appears that a Delaware Indian Chief 
who had murdered a certain John Armstrong and 
his two servants, was arrested and imprisoned at 
Lancaster. All disputes between the whites and 
the Indians came up for discussion. 

During the French and Indian War, Benjamin 
Franklin was commissioned to secure hundreds of 
wagons and pack horses in order to oppose the 
French invasion of Pennsylvania. Many of these 
wagons and pack horses were obtained in Lan- 
caster and were sent to General Braddock at 
Will's Creek. When after Braddock's defeat the 
whole frontier was exposed to Indian molestation, 
and the savages began to ravage both sides of the 
Susquehanna, a block house or wooden fort was 
built in Lancaster, and the cloisters of Ephrata 
were used as shelter for the white settlers whom 
the Indians drove from home. 

So indignant were the people of Lancaster for 
a time over the neglect of the Provincial As- 
sembly to adopt measures which would put a stop 



6 Lancaster's golden century 

to Indian outrages, that at a public meeting it 
was resolved that '' they would repair to Phila- 
delphia and compel the provincial authorities to 
pass proper laws to defend the country and oppose 
the enemy." It is said that the dead bodies of 
some of the victims of Indian massacre were sent 
to that city and hauled about the streets with 
placards announcing that these were victims of 
the policy of non-resistance. A mob surrounded 
the House of Assembly, placed the dead bodies in 
the doorway and demanded immediate relief for 
the people of the frontiers. 

After a period of renewed Indian outrages, Gov- 
ernor Denny of Pennsylvania held another Coun- 
cil with the Indian Chiefs of the Six Nations at 
Lancaster in 1757. During the general alarm 
felt in the days of the French and Indian War 
people from all parts of Lancaster rallied under 
arms for the general defense and performed their 
duty on the border, many serving as officers and 
soldiers in the battalions which marched Avith 
Forbes and Bouquet to the Ohio. In this list of 
Lancaster County men who served in the French 
and Indian War are found the names of Shippen, 
Grubb, Atlee, Hambright, Reynolds, and a roll 
of five Presbyterian clergymen serving as 
chaplains. 

The Scotch Irish settlers in the Paxton and 
Donegal townships had suffered terribly from 
Indian outrages during the whole period of the 
French and Indian War. The Conestoga Indians 



THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS 7 

however had not been at war with the whites. 
They were considered rather friendly. Bill Sock, 
a well-known Conestoga Indian, was probably an 
exception. In any case the Paxton boys after 
vainly asking protection from the governor and 
provincial authorities determined to strike terror 
into all Indians by exterminating the Conestoga 
tribe. On December 27, 1763 a band of sixty 
men called the Paxton boys came into Lancaster, 
stormed the jail and workhouse located at the 
northeast corner of West King and Prince streets, 
and mercilessly massacred the fourteen Indians 
confined there for protection. 

During the American Revolution Lancaster 
took an earnest and patriotic part. With the en- 
forcing of the Boston Port Bill which closed the 
port of that city, the resentment of every colonist 
in America was aroused. Among the first to take 
concerted action in response to this outrage were 
the people of the borough of Lancaster. A meet- 
ing of the inhabitants of the borough took place 
at the Court House on June 15, 1774. Though 
still professing firm; allegiance to His Most 
Gracious Majesty, George the Third, they passed 
strong resolutions to unite with all the other 
colonists to use the most effectual means to pro- 
cure a repeal of. the unjust acts of Parliament 
against the town of Boston. A committee of 
correspondence was appointed, consisting of 
Edward Shippen, Esq., George Ross, Esq., Jasper 
Yeates, Esq., Matthias Slough, Esq., James Webb, 



8 Lancaster's golden century 

Esq., William Atlee, Esq., William Henry, Esq., 
Mr. Ludwig Lauman, Mr. William Bausman, and 
Mr. Charles Hall. 

At a later meeting held July 9, 1774 at which 
George Ross presided, the right of Parliament to 
tax the colonies without their consent was denied, 
and a call was issued for a close union of all the 
colonies to resist the oppressive acts of the British 
Parliament. The sum of 153 pounds was col- 
lected for the relief of the people of Boston. 

The people of Lancaster were dead in earnest 
in their determination to refuse importation of 
British goods. When two merchants were 
charged with violating the agreement made at 
that meeting by bringing in tea on which the duty 
had been paid, the committee at once began in- 
vestigation and acquitted the men only after it 
was proved that no duty had been paid on tea, 
but that it had been seized at the Philadelphia 
custom house. 

On December 15, 1774 a Committee of Obser- 
vation consisting of ']6 members was elected at a 
meeting of the Freeholders of the County held in 
the Court House at Lancaster. The object of the 
Committee was to see that the agreement not to 
import or export British goods was fully observed. 

Six days after the battle of Lexington, news of 
the first bloodshed of the Revolution reached Lan- 
caster. At once a meeting of the borough com- 
mittee was called at the Grape Tavern. By May 
ij 1775) it was resolved by the community that 



THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS 9 

military companies be formed to defend our rights 
and liberties with our lives and fortunes. With- 
in a week the formation of companies called 
"Associators ", began. These troops fought 
throughout the whole War of Independence, in 
the battles of Long Island, White Plains, Trenton, 
Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown and Mon- 
mouth. Col. Thompson's Battalion of Riflemen 
joined Washington's army at Cambridge, Mass. 
in August, 1775. In this Battalion were three 
officers from Lancaster Borough, Colonel Edward 
Hand, Lieuts. David Ziegler and Frederick 
Hubley. Capt. Matthew Smith's Company of 
Lancaster took part in the invasion of Canada in 
1775. Many of Lancaster's troops endured the 
hardships of the encampment at Valley Forge 
during the winter of IJJJ-IJ'J^. Lieut.-Col. 
Adam Hubley of Lancaster and the new nth 
Penna. Regiment formed part of Sullivan's fam- 
ous expedition against the Indians in i 779. 

On July 4, 1776 a military convention was held 
at Lancaster composed of delegates from many 
Pennsylvania battalions of Associators for the 
purpose of forming a Flying Camp as directed 
by the Continental Congress. When the defeat 
of the Army of the Americans at Brandywine, 
September 11, 1777 made it evident that General 
Washington could not prevent the victorious 
forces of Gen. Howe from occupying Phila- 
delphia, Continental Congress and the Executive 
Council of Pennsylvania took measures looking to 



10 Lancaster's golden century 

an immediate removal to a place of safety. The 
British army under Gen. Howe entered Phila- 
delphia on the 27th of September. The last 
session of the Council prior to that event was 
held on the 23 rd. Its next meeting was on Wed- 
nesday, October ist at Lancaster where its ses- 
sions continued to be held for nearly nine months, 
during which time the President of the Council, 
the Hon. Thomas Wharton, Jr. died. His body 
was interred in the Evangelical Lutheran Church. 

The Continental Congress remained in session 
in Philadelphia after the battle of Brandywine 
until the 1 8th of September when it adjourned 
upon receiving a letter from Col. Hamilton, one 
of Gen. Washington's aids, which intimated the 
necessity of Congress leaving their place of 
deliberation. The members resolved at once to 
come to Lancaster where they arrived on the 27th 
of September, the very day on which Gen. Howe 
entered Philadelphia. The records and treasury 
were removed to Lancaster by way of Reading. 
One session of Congress was held here but the 
members believing that they might be interrupted 
by the enemy resolved to remove Congress to 
York. 

Christopher Marshall's interesting diary gives 
us a delightful picture of war conditions in Lan- 
caster during Revolutionary Days. Under 
August 24, 1777 he writes: " Wife and I stayed 
at home to keep the boys out of the orchard, 
(His home was on East Orange St.) After 



/^ 









THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS II 

dinner I took a walk with Capt. Markoe to the 
barracks; stayed there till the English, Scotch 
and Irish prisoners, to the number of two hun- 
dred, marched out under a strong guard to 
Reading." August 25th: '* To the barracks; 
waited till our division of Hessian prisoners, con- 
sisting of three hundred and forty-five, marched 
out under a strong guard (with somie women and 
baggage wagons, as the prisoners yesterday had 
done) for Lebanon. August 26th : " News that 
Gen. Washington with half his army and light 
horse, passed through Philadelphia on First Day 
morning on their way to Wilmington, and that 
Howe with his fleet was seen off Eagle Point, but 
had not landed. On First Day morning the bell- 
man went round this town, calling upon the in- 
habitants that had Hessian prisoners, to take them 
to the barracks and receive receipts for them, but 
very few obeyed." September 12th: ''I went 
into town, an alarm being spread that some of 
Howe's Light Horse had been seen at Pequea 
Church, about 18 miles from Lancaster. This 
set sundry people to pack up their goods and 
some sent them out of town into the country. 
Later we learned that the news of the morning 
was the lie of the day." September 17th: " It 
is said that James Rankin who ran away last week 
from his habitation in York County on account 
of his being accused of forming a scheme to 
destroy all our magazines of ammunition, arms, 
tents, baggage, provisions, etc. in Lancaster, 



12 Lancaster's golden century 

Carlisle, York, Reading, etc. was taken about six- 
teen miles from our enemies' camp, and secured, 
but where I could not learn." September 20th: 
" We sat late conversing on these melancholy 
times." September 25th: "Came into town 
President Hancock, and some others of the Dele- 
gates." September 29th : " Took leave of sundry 
of the Congress, who were setting off for York- 
town. Many of the inhabitants of Philadelphia 
came (to Lancaster) to-day and yesterday, as did 
our President or Governor, the Executive Council 
and the members of Assembly, who met here 
this day in the Court House." 

Many of the Hessians captured by Washing- 
ton at Trenton, and many others made prisoners 
by Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga were con- 
fined at Lancaster. Among the prisoners here 
was the unfortunate Major Andre. While here 
he signed a parole which read: " I John Andre, 
being a prisoner in the United Colonies of 
America do, upon the honor of a gentleman 
promise that I will not go into or near any sea- 
port town, nor farther than six miles distant from 
Lancaster without leave of the Continental Con- 
gress or the Committee of Safety of Pennsyl- 
vania, and that I will carry on no political cor- 
respondence whatever on the subject of the dis- 
pute between Great Britain and the Colonies so 
long as I remain a prisoner." On these condi- 
tions he became a member of the household of 
Caleb Cope, on North Lime St. on the north side 
of Grant. 



TPIE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS 13 

Not only prisoners of war, but a great many 
wounded American soldiers were brought to Lan- 
caster from the battlefield of Brandywine. Over 
500 were taken to Ephrata where 150 of them 
died. 

The story of Lancaster's part in the American 
Revolution would not be complete without refer- 
ence to Lancaster's signer of the Declaration of 
Independence, George Ross. This son of an 
Episcopal clergyman, born in New Castle, Dela- 
ware, settled in Lancaster in 1751 and became 
prosecutor for the King. He became a repre- 
sentative in the Pennsylvania Assembly and later 
was elected to the first Continental Congress. That 
Lancaster appreciated the services of George 
Ross is evidenced by the fact that at a public 
meeting held in the borough it was resolved that 
one hundred and fifty pounds be presented to 
George Ross, and that he use the same to purchase 
'' a genteel piece of plate, ornamented as he thinks 
proper, to remain with him as a testimony of the 
esteem this county has for him, by reason of his 
patriotic conduct in the great struggle for Ameri- 
can liberty." Mr. Ross graciously and modestly 
declined this liberal and honorable present. A 
few months after he signed the Declaration of 
Independence, ill health compelled him to leave 
Congress. He died in Lancaster in 1779. 

When the Ross farm, now known as Rossmere 
was laid out into town lots, the old Ross mansion 
was torn down. It stood on Ross street between 



14 Lancaster's golden century 

Shippen and Plum streets. The site is marked 
by a pillar and tablet erected by the pro- 
prietors of Rossmere, and presented to the Lan- 
caster County Historical Society on June 4, 1897. 
The tablet bears the following inscription, " Here 
stood the house of George Ross, Signer of the 
Declaration of Independence, born 1730, died 
1779, Lawyer, Statesman, Patriot." A stained 
glass window in St. James' Church also com- 
memorates his memory. 

Another son of Lancaster who brought dis- 
tinction to his native soil in Revolutionary Days 
was David Ramsay, the historian. Born in Lan- 
caster County in 1749 he began the practice of 
medicine in South Carolina, where he ardently 
espoused the cause of the patriots, became active 
in the provisional free government and when the 
Revolutionary, War broke out he became a sur- 
geon in the military service. He was among the 
prisoners captured in Charleston in 1780, and was 
closely confined in the fort at St. Augustine. Dr. 
Ramsay was a member of Congress from 1 782 to 
I ySG and was president of that body for a year. 
Both his '' History of the Revolution in South 
Carolina " and his " History of the American 
Revolution " were translated into the French lan- 
guage and published in France. He also wrote 
and published a *' Life of Washington " and a 
" History of the United States " to the close of 
the colonial period. Dr. Ramsay because of his 
intimate associations with General Green. Ben- 



THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS 15 

jamin Franklin, and George Washington pos- 
sessed greater facilities for procuring materials 
for the history of the Revolution than any other 
individual in the United States. Dr. Ramsay 
was shot in the back and slain by the bullet of 
a maniac, within sight of his own door in Broad 
Street, Philadelphia, in 1815. 

William Henry was another of Lancaster's dis- 
tinguished sons in Revolutionary Days. For 
many years he conducted a gun factory at the 
southeast corner of Centre Square. He. became 
one of the most active men of Lancaster to espouse 
the cause of the colonies. He was engaged by the 
general committee of safety to manufacture and 
repair arms for the continental army. During 
the Revolution the house of Mr. Henry was a 
place of resort for men of culture and prominence. 
While the British held Philadelphia, David 
Rittenhouse, the philosopher, then State Treas- 
urer, Thomas Paine, author of the " Rights of 
Man," John Hart, a member of the Executive 
Council were guests at the house of Mr. Henry. 
It was during the time that Thomas Paine was 
stopping at the house of Mr. Henry that he wrote 
No. 5 of his celebrated political treatises, the 
" Crisis ". Mr. Henry was commissary of the 
regiment of troops raised in Lancaster County 
and was destined to reinforce Arnold at Boston. 
He was a member of the Continental Congress 
from 1784 to 1786. It was said of him that he 
first recognized in the youthful Benjamin West a 



1 6 Lancaster's golden century 

genius of high order, and that he suggested to 
West his first masterpiece '' The Death of So- 
crates." When West confessed that he knew 
nothing of Socrates, Mr. Henry went to his library 
and took down a volume of the English trans- 
lation of Plutarch and convinced the artist of the 
fitness of the theme which afterwards made West 
famous. 

Judge John Joseph Henry was the son of Wil- 
liam Henry. In the fall of 1 775 he secretly 
joined a regiment raised in Lancaster County for 
the purpose of joining Arnold, who at that time 
was stationed at Boston. When the boy was but 
seventeen years of age, his regiment entered 
Canada and endured hardships there which young 
Henry has immortalized in his history of the cam- 
paign against Quebec. He was later appointed 
by Governor MifBin Judge of the Second 
Judicial District of Pennsylvania, and held the 
position for seventeen years. 

The greatest military hero of Lancaster during 
the Revolution, however, was General Edward 
Pland. This native of Ireland, surgeon in the Royal 
Irish regiment, sailed with his regiment from Cork 
in 1767 and arrived at Philadelphia. In 1774 
he came with a recommendation to Lancaster in 
order to practice his profession. In 1775 he en- 
tered the Continental service. In 1777 he was 
chosen Colonel of the first regiment of Pennsyl- 
vania riflemen, famous for its exploits during the 
Revolution. He was raised to the grade of 



THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS 17 

Brigadier General and subsequently to that of 
Adjutant General. He fought in the Battles of 
Trenton and Long Island. He succeeded Gen- 
eral Stark in command at Albany in 1778 and 
accompanied General Sullivan in the expedition 
against the Six Nations in 1780. He was a mem- 
ber of Continental Congress in 1784 and 1785. 
A man of soldierly presence, a fine horseman, an 
able commander, General Hand was a distin- 
guished figure. His home " Rockford " still 
stands on the Conestoga river in the southeastern 
part of the city. Under the roof of this hospitable 
mansion, many of the soldiers and civilians fam- 
ous in the early annals of our nation found shelter 
and congenial companionship. 

Edward Hand was elected chief burgess of 
Lancaster in 1 789. It is from a famous letter 
that he wrote during this period that we get our 
real light on the status of Lancaster at the time 
our national government came into existence. He 
put forth the claims of Lancaster for the honor 
of the nation's capital. It must be born in mind 
that Lancaster in 1789 was the largest inland 
town in the United States. 

General Hand wrote to Congress, " Should the 
general interests of the Union point out an inland, 
central situation as preferable to a seaport for the 
future residence of your Honorable Body, We 
humbly offer ourselves as candidates for that dis- 
tinguished honor. As an inland town, we do not 
consider ourselves inferior to any within the 



i§ Lancaster's golden centurV 

Dominion of the United States. The Borough 
of Lancaster is a square encompassing a portion 
of ground one mile in length from the centre 
(the court house) by the main streets which inter- 
sect at right angles. We have five public build- 
ings, including an elegant court house, fifty by 
forty-eight feet. There are several places of wor- 
ship besides a temporary synagogue, belonging 
tO' the respective societies of Episcopalian, Pres- 
byterian, Lutherans, Reformed Church of Heidel- 
berg, Moravian, Quakers and Catholics. Within 
the compass of the borough an enumeration of 
dwellings was actually taken in 1786 and the 
number then built was 678. Many of the houses 
are large and elegant, and would in our idea, ac- 
commodate Congress and their suite at this period 
without inconvenience. Boarding and lodging 
are to be had at very easy rates. According to 
the best computation we can make there are with- 
in this borough about 4200 souls." 

''The industries of the town are (1789) — 14 
hatters, 36 shoemakers, 4 tanners, 17 saddlers, 25 
tailors, 22 butchers, 25 weavers, 25 blacksmiths, 
12 public bakers, 30 carpenters, 11 coopers, 6 
dyers, 7 gunsmiths, 5 ropemakers, 5 tinners, 2 
brass founders, 3 skindressers, i brushmaker, 7 
turners, 7 nailors, 5 silversmiths, 3 potters, 3 cop- 
persmiths, 3 breweries, 3 brickyards, 3 printing 
presses, and 40 houses of public entertainment 
within the borough." 

The close of the Revolution marked the be- 



THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS 19 

ginning of numerous institutions of higher learn- 
ing. In this movement Lancaster shared in the 
founding of Franklin College, Twelve men of 
national prominence took the initiative in found- 
ing a College in Lancaster because of the central 
and healthy situation of the place, the character 
of its inhabitants, the convenience with which 
students of every description might be accommo- 
dated with board and lodging and the probability 
that the necessary buildings might be secured at 
a moderate expense. 

From the profound respect for the character 
of His Excellency the President of the State, the 
institution was called Franklin College. The 
petition was signed by Thomas McKean, a 
signer of the Declaration of Independence, Chief 
Justice of Pennsylvania from 1777 to 1799 and 
governor of the state from 1 799 to 1808 ; by Peter 
Muhlenberg, the soldier preacher of the Revolu- 
tion, a major general in the American Army and 
later a noted United States Senator; by Benjamin 
Rush, one of the most eminent men of the Revolu- 
tion and of the generation following, a signer 
of the Declaration of Independence, a surgeon in 
the American Army, a writer and philanthropist 
of wide renown ; and by other men of equal dis- 
tinction. That the petitioners were justified in 
their statement that they had prospects of obtain- 
ing funds to carry out their designs is seen in the 
first subscription list of Franklin College which 
is headed by his Excellency Benjamin Franklin, 



io Lancaster's golden centurV 

Esq. with a subscription of 200 pounds, followed 
by the names of Robert Morris, Peter Muhlenberg 
and others. The Legislature of Pennsylvania 
granted a charter to Franklin College on the lOth 
of March, 1787. 

Among the first trustees of Franklin College, 
four, Rush, McKean, Clymer and Morris had 
been signers of the Declaration of Independence, 
a number of them, Muhlenberg, Mifflin, Daniel 
and Joseph Hiester, Chambers, Farmer, Craw- 
ford, had been officers in the Revolutionary War. 
Mifflin, McKean and Joseph Hiester became gov- 
ernors of Pennsylvania. Several of the trustees 
became senators of the United States. A number 
were prominent citizens of Lancaster, Casper 
Schaffner, Jasper Yeates and others. 

Almost all the members of the Board of Trus- 
tees of Franklin College were present at the first 
meeting, a long line of carriages bringing many 
of them over 66 miles of road from Philadelphia. 
Benjamin Franklin then 81 years of age left his 
activities as a member of the Constitutional Con- 
vention meeting in Philadelphia, to be present at 
the dedication of the college to be named in his 
honor. The first faculty of Franklin College was 
composed of men concerning whom Benjamin 
Rush said that a cluster of more learned or better 
qualified masters had not met in any university. 

In the spring of 1791 George Washington then 
President of the new union of the United States 
left his home in Philadelphia to make a tour 



tiFlE F'IRST HtTNDRED YEARS ^^ 

through all the Southern states. On his return 
he stopped at Lancaster. His visit fell on the 
fifteenth anniversary of American Independence, 
so, on July 4, 1 791, he joined with our city fathers 
in the celebration of that important event. Al- 
though much feted and elaborately entertained 
by public demonstrations, Washington found time 
in the afternoon to visit his old friends, General 
and Mrs. Hand, at their home '' Rockford." 

On the 14th of December, 1799 when George 
Washington died, there was a solemn procession 
through the streets of Lancaster as soon as the 
news arrived here. While the entire nation was 
mourning the loss of Washington, the State of 
Pennsylvania was called upon to lament the death 
of its first governor, Thomas Mifflin. This 
splendid ex-governor and Quaker General of the 
Revolutionary Army died in Lancaster, while 
serving as a member of the Legislature, this city 
being then the capital of the state. Mifflin was 
buried on the 22d of January, 1800, just out- 
side the west wall of Trinity Church, beneath 
the humble tablet placed there, at a later date, 
to transmit his memory and mark his resting place. 

Lancaster was the capital of Pennsylvania from 
1799 to 1812 when the state capital was removed 
to Harrisburg. The State Legislature met in the 
Court House, which at that time was also known 
as the State House. The present Court House 
at the corner of East King and Duke Streets, is 
the third Court House Lancaster has had. Even 



22 Lancaster's golden century 

before the first one was built the courts were held 
at different taverns. The first court house was 
begun in 1736 and finished in 1739. It was a 
two-story brick structure and stood in the centre 
of the square where the Soldier's Monument now 
stands. The floor was laid with brick. There 
was a steeple on it and about 1756 a clock was 
placed in the belfry. This Court House was de- 
stroyed by fire in 1784. A new and more impos- 
ing structure was at once built on the site of the 
one destroyed. It was in this second Court House 
that the State Legislature met. The third and 
present Court House was built in 1852 and com- 
pleted in 1854. 

During the War of 181 2 a large number of sol- 
diers from Lancaster County entered the service. 
When there was a general apprehension that the 
British were preparing to invade Maryland and 
Delaware, a Lancaster County battalion of several 
companies marched to Elkton, Mar^dand. x^Lmong 
the troops on that expedition was the Lancaster 
Phalanx commanded by Captain James Humes. 
Captain John Hubley also commanded a company 
from Lancaster. During the British invasion of 
Maryland and attack on Baltimore, Governor 
Simon Snyder called out the militia of Lancaster 
and neighboring counties to the number of 5,000 
men. The capture and burning of Washington 
brought out many volunteers from Lancaster 
County, but the services of many of the troops 
were not required for actual fighting. 



THE FIRST HUNDRED YEARS 



23 



On petition of the citizens, Lancaster after a 
period of seventy-six }^ears under burgess rule, 
was incorporated as a city by a charter granted 
by Act of the State Legislature in 18 18. The 
meeting of the burgesses which for three quarters 
of a century had been held at the house of one 
Jacob Frey, forthwith ceased. Fifteen members 
of Common Council and nine members of Select 
Council v/ere elected, and John Passmore became 
the first mayor of the newly incorporated city of 
Lancaster. The Old had passed away and there 
was great promise for the New. Such is the story 
from Brule to Passmore — a period of exactly two 
hundred years. 






"^^^-z^ 



GENERAL HAND'S HOUSE 




OLD HOUSES ON MIDDLE STREET 



CHAPTER II 



THE LANCASTER OF I 82 I 




OR Americans, the noteworthy events 
of the year 1821 seem to have been 
the inauguration of President Monroe, 
and the admission of Missouri to state- 
hood. The United States had 10,000,000 inhabi- 
tants, of which more than one-tenth lived in the 
State of Pennsylvania. The State of Illinois had 
only 55,000. The list of taxables in Lancaster 
County was 13,560 whites, and 14 slaves. James 
Buchanan was our represenative in Congress, 
Joseph Hiester was Governor of the State, and 
Samuel Carpenter, Mayor of the City of Lancaster. 
The sheriff of course was an important county 
official in those days. He took the duties of his 
office very seriously. It is recorded that a certain 



THE LANCASTER OF 1 82 1 25 

John Lechler tried and found guilty of murder 
was executed by authority of the sheriff on the 
commons west of the city of Lancaster. The poor 
fellow was w^alked on foot in dress parade from 
the jail to the place of execution escorted by the 
City Guards, the Lancaster Phalanx, the Lan- 
caster Greens, and accompanied by the City Band. 
Two troops of cavalry and the Leacock Phalanx 
from the county attended on the ground and 
formed a guard round the gallows before the 
criminal arrived. It is estimated that at least 
15,000 people were present. Truly the sheriff 
must have been in his glory on that day. Fifteen 
thousand people ! Lancaster City at the time 
had but 1600 taxables, and a population of 8,000 
souls. 

The central feature of Lancaster in 182 1 was 
the Court House in Centre Square. From this 
Court House there radiated the several streets 
as one still finds them to-day. At the north- 
east corner of West King and Prince Streets 
was the branch Bank of Philadelphia which had 
been opened in 1803. On East King Street 
was to be found the Farmers Bank of Lan- 
caster. This property at the corner of Duke 
and East King streets had been purchased from 
Mr. Philip Reigart in 18 14. The Demuth 
Tobacco Store, the oldest of its kind in the United 
States, had been doing business at 114 East King 
street since 1770. Just a few doors west of the 
Farmers Bank, J. F. Heinitsh was advertising 



26 Lancaster's golden century 

" Fresh and Genuine Drugs and Medicines, Dye 
Stuffs." John Frederick Steinman was conduct- 
ing the hardware store on West King street, which 
had been opened as far back as 1 744, and which is 
still in existence. Across the street C. Hager 
and Co. was advertising " Fresh Fall Goods, 
Oueensware and Groceries." On West King street 
the Lancaster Journal was printed by John 
Reynolds. On East King street, the Pennsylvaiiia 
Gazette was published every Tuesday by Hugh 
Maxwell. Books and stationer}^ were also for 
sale at the Gazette office. The Lancaster Intelli- 
gencer was published weekly on North Queen 
street by William Dickson. Books, pamphlets and 
handbills were to be had at the Lancaster Journal 
office, sign of Franklin's Head, West King street. 
The most pretentious building in the community 
was probabl}^ the four-story stone house com- 
monly called The Lancaster Cotton Factory, 
seventy by forty feet on the Conestoga Creek one 
mile from the centre of the city. George Hoff 
advertised himself as clock and watch maker on 
East King street while his wife sold an assortment 
of leghorn and straw bonnets for ladies in the 
same store. Hats and shoes could be bought on 
West King street next door to the Sign of the 
Lamb. On the northeast corner of Centre Square 
next door to the Post Office, John Getz the Cop- 
persmith, Sheet Iron and Tin Plate Worker, sold 
stills, copper and brass kettles. A Starch Factory 
had been started by John W. Field just arrived 



THE LANCASTER OF 1 82 1 27 

from England. This factory was opened in the 
house next to that formerly occupied by Dr. Dah^ 
John Riddle had a barber and hairdressing es- 
tablishment next door but one west of Mr. Slay- 
maker's Inn on East King street. Hoffnagle and 
Hubley commission merchants were to be found 
on North Queen street near the Court House. 
John Moderwel, coach and harness maker, was 
located at King and Lime streets. At the south- 
east corner of Centre Square, Ober and Kline 
were selling fresh juniper berries and dyestuffs. 
John Doersh, bookbinder and paperhanger, was 
located on South Queen street directly opposite 
Robert Wilson's Tavern. George Bomberger's 
store was to be found on East King street three 
doors below the sign of the Ship, nearly opposite 
the house of Dr. Abraham Carpenter. Mr. 
McMillan on North Queen street near the Court 
House was handling spectacles and whips. 
Augustus J. Kuhn informed the citizens of Lan- 
caster that he had just procured machinery for 
preparing seltzer and soda waters. The principal 
improvement '' consists in extracting the atmos- 
pheric air from the water, rendering it more 
salubrious and pleasant." Soda with syrup, 6% 
cents, soda plain 3 cents. 

Another ambitious business man informed the 
inhabitants of Lancaster that he has just returned 
from Philadelphia with the latest fashions, and 
that he could make a suit of clothes in five hours, 
if required. One of the stores advertised superior 



28 Lancaster's golden century 

quills and neat small pewter inkstands. Thus it 
is seen that there were a goodly number of stores 
in Lancaster in 1821. 

A number of private schools were in existence 
in Lancaster during this period. Many of them 
were of a rather primitive nature. A self- 
appointed teacher would advertise for example 
that " he proposed to teach the young ladies and 
gentlemen of the community the polite art of 
writing." Another oifered to teach the art of pen- 
manship in verse, and English Grammar to be 
imparted in verse. John Webb opened his school 
April 3rd on South Queen street, and offered to 
teach reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, 
bookkeeping, geography. Terms of tuition per 
quarter were two and three dollars. Edward 
Clarke, long a teacher in Philadelphia, opened a 
school in September on North Prince street. Mr. 
Williams had a Penmanship and Drawing 
Academy on North Queen street. A Mr. and 
Mrs. Quinan opened an English and French 
school. A special school for young ladies was 
conducted by Sarah Armstrong on Queen street, 
second square north of the Court House. The 
Thomas school for young children was to be 
found " half a square east of Metzgar's Tavern." 
A circulating library was conducted by Miss 
Jordan in the house formerly occupied by Mr. 
Joseph Smith coachmaker, East King street. The 
library fee was three dollars a year. Franklin 
College seems at this period to have been in a more 



THE LANCASTER OF 1 82 1 29 

or less moribund condition. Within a few years 
however the Lancaster County Academy was 
founded which once more gave Lancaster a classi- 
cal school. A lot of ground was procured at the 
northeast corner of Orange and Lime streets on 
which the Academy Building was erected. The 
Lancaster County Academy was later merged in 
Franklin College. 

In speaking of the early schools of Lancaster 
of course mention must be made of the Moravian 
Schools of Lititz, of the Seventh Day Advent 
Schools of Ephrata, of the Episcopal Church 
School at Caernarvon, of the Presbyterian Classi- 
cal Schools in Salisbury, Donegal and Drumore, 
and of the parochial schools of other denomin- 
ations. A public school on what was known as 
the Lancastrian plan was opened in the city of 
Lancaster in 1823. It was considered an institu- 
tion of high repute in its day. General Lafayette 
visited it when he was lionized in Lancaster in 
1825. The building is still used to-day for 
School Administrative purposes. It stands at the 
corner of West Chestnut and Prince streets. 

Young people seem to have had plenty of 
amusement in Lancaster in 1821. There were al- 
ways the simple games that our forefathers knew, 
corner ball, rail pitching, sledge tossing and 
quoits. Then there were the singing schools dur- 
ing winter. For those who were more frivolously 
inclined there were the balls and the cotillion 
parties. Then there was the Annual Festival of 



30 Lancaster's golden century 

Harvest Home '* where the sons and daughters of 
freedom and those who are friendly to innocent 
pleasure and festive gaity are invited. The 
tavern-keepers/' so reads the notice, '' have pro- 
vided themselves with everything that can ren- 
der the hilarity of the day agreeable." Or there 
was what was known as the Yearly Market, when 
long rooms were cleared for the lightsome dance, 
and a goodly assortment of gingerbread, raisins, 
figs and pickled oysters were served to festive 
guests. Or one could attend the Lancaster 
Theatre on Orange street. One of the plays given 
in the Lancaster Theatre was called '' Point of 
Honor " or a '* School for Soldiers." In the 
third act there was a military procession prepara- 
tory to the execution of a deserter. After the 
three acts of this melodrama, there was a musical 
farce in two acts called '' Lock and Key " with 
songs and duets. Two songs that were sung were 
entitled " When Freedom on the foaming main," 
and *' When left to themselves, girls are mischiev- 
ous elves." The doors opened at 6.30 and the 
curtain rose at 7.00. 

Or if the devotee of pleasure in the second 
and third decade of the nineteenth centuiy in 
Lancaster wanted to see something even more 
exciting he could go to the Lancaster Museum, and 
see the " Wonders of Nature and Art." This 
institution was brilliantly illuminated on Tues- 
day and Friday nights, the nights of illumination. 
There for twelve cents and a half, he could see 



THE LANCASTER OF 1 82 I 31 

shells from the West Indies, and a number col- 
lected by the Proprietor John Landis ' on his late 
visit to the sea-shore.' Aquatic and other birds, 
fish ' well worth the attention of the curious ', 
insects some of which were singularly interesting, 
a large elk, a wild cat, an African ape and a bear 
added to the value of the museum. There were 
also a number of wax figures depicting Biblical 
scenes. The fatal duel between Decatur and 
Barron was staged in wax, the group representing 
the parties immediately after they had fired, 
Decatur mortally wounded in the arms of his 
friend Col. Bainbridge, and Barron danger- 
ously wounded in the arms of Captain Elliott. 
In place of " movies " they had a magic lantern 
show, advertised as a " Phantasmagoria." 
Opposite the Lancaster Museum was Allen's 
Lottery and Exchange Office. Here tickets could 
be bought and shares in a variety of numbers of 
the Grand State Lottery. On Washington's 
Birthday the lottery distributed the sum of 
$250,000, including a first prize of $100,000. 
The means of transportation was by stage 
coach. A line connected Chambersburg, Carlisle, 
Harrisburg, Lancaster and Philadelphia. The 
stage left Red Lion Market House, Philadelphia 
at half past six in the morning for Lancaster, and 
another left Mr. Cooper's sign of the Red Lion 
for Philadelphia every morning at half past six. 
Three times a week the stage left Mr. Cooper's for 
Llarrisburg and the following days left Mr. 



32 Lancaster's golden century 

Schock's Harrisburg for Lancaster at seven in 
the morning. The fare from Philadelphia to 
Lancaster was three dollars and from Lancaster 
to Harrisburg was two dollars. 

The winter of 1 821 was considered a hard 
winter. One citizen writes " That the times are 
hard, the taxes heavy, money scarce and that the 
improvement of the city ought not to stand still 
are truths which we admit." The Lancaster 
Benevolent Society in acknowledging a rather 
modest contribution in November, 182 1 says "At 
a time like the j^resent when we are surrounded 
with so much sickness and distress, and such re- 
peated applications are made to charitable citizens, 
the society felt a delicacy in obtruding themselves 
upon the notice of the public, and they almost be- 
gan to despair of being able to provide any flannel 
or wood for the approaching winter." 

The accounts of the Treasurer of the City of 
Lancaster, George Weizel show that from Janu- 
ary, 1 82 1 to January, 1822 he received a total of 
$3,600.92 of which sum, $12 was received for 
licenses granted for exhibiting strange animals, 
$118 for butchers on account of shamble rent, 
$6.08 from clerk of market, for butter under-, 
weight seized and sold. The expenditures con- 
sisted of pay for night watchmen, rattles for use of 
night watchmen, lamp-posts, wicks, torch yarn, 
fuel for watch boxes, paving gutters and foot- 
walks, painting and lettering index boards. 

What was known as the American System of 



titE LANCASTER OF 1 82 t J 3 

Henry Clay was making itself felt all over the 
nation just one hundred years ago. It was a 
demand for home manufacture. That demand 
was echoed in Lancaster in the following state- 
ment found in one of the Lancaster newspapers 
of that period : " We continue tO' purchase manu- 
factures from Europe because we think we can 
buy them cheaper than make them. This policy 
cannot last. The period is rapidly hastening 
when we will be obliged to abridge our wants or 
supply them from our own resources. We will 
have to work our own iron mines, grow and 
manufacture our own wool and flax and by these 
means create employment for our citizens and a 
home market for our agricultural products." 
This demand for home manufactured products 
made itself strongly felt in Lancaster at an 
early date. 

There was another way in which patriotism 
manifested itself a hundred years ago. That 
was by the public demonstrations of the military 
companies. Throughout the city and the county 
there were to be found many military organiza- 
tions, frequent parades, and annual election of 
captain and lieutenants. There was the Leacock 
Phalanx, the City Guards, the Lancaster Greens, 
the volunteers and enrolled militia composing the 
First Brigade of the Fourth Division of Penn- 
sylvania, the Strasburg Independent Blues, the 
Lancaster County Light Dragoons, the Volunteer 
Troop of Cavalry formed in the bounds of the 



34 Lancaster's golden century 

35th Regiment, and the Union Troop. These 
state and local military companies were neces- 
sary. For in January, 1820 the whole United 
States Army consisted of only 8,184 men. 

The Fourth of July celebrations were the oc- 
casion for wonderful demonstrations and en- 
thusiastic banquets in those days. In George 
Washington's Diary there is an interesting ac- 
count of a 4th of July which he spent in Lan- 
caster 130 years ago. He arrived here from York 
at 6 o'clock on the evening of July 3rd escorted 
from Wright's Ferry by General Hand and many 
of the principal characters of Lancaster. It was 
a rare honor for Lancaster to entertain His Ex- 
cellency, The President of the United States on 
the Anniversary of American Independence. 
Washington wrote in his diary: ''At Lancaster: 
July 4, 1 79 1. This being the Anniversary of 
American Independence and being kindly re- 
quested to do it, I agreed to halt here this day 
and partake of the entertainment which was pre- 
paring for the celebration of it. In the forenoon 
I walked about the town. At half past 2 o'clock 
I received and answered an address from the Cor- 
poration and the Compliments of the Clergy of 
different denominations — dined between 3 and 4 
o'clock — drank tea with Mrs. Hand." According 
to Claypoole's Daily Advertiser "At three o'clock 
President Washington and a very large number of 
citizens, sat down to an elegant entertainment, 
provided for the occasion, in the court-house." 



THE LANCASTER OF 1 82 I 35 

The following are a few records of Independence 
Day celebrations one hundred years ago. The 
" Paradise Hornet " — strange to find a hornet 
in Paradise — records that the " Union Troop of 
Cavalry commanded by Captain J. Moore met at 
the house of Mr. Isaac Smoker on the turnpike 
for the purpose of celebrating the birthday of 
American Independence where they partook of 
an elegant repast. After the cloth was removed 
toasts accompanied by cheers and plaudits of the 
company were drank, when the members of the 
company returned to their respective homes in 
perfect harmony." 

The toasts drank on the Fourth of July of each 
year were generally considered as indication of 
popular feeling on political subjects. One of the 
cleverest toasts ran something like this : " The army 
which never pulled a trigger or pushed a bayonet 
against the rights of man — ^the Army of the 
United States." Another to the Fair Sex ran : 
" Let them give us their affections, and we will 
protect them with our arms." Among the toasts 
given at the Fourth of July banquet of the Lan- 
caster County Light Dragoons commanded by 
Captain Diller was one to the Legislature of 
Pennsylvania which was worded thus: "While 
taking care of themselves may they not forget 
to take care of volunteers and militia. Lexing- 
ton and New Orleans have proved their worth." 
Two other toasts ran as follows : " Lancaster 
County, The Garden of America, May her agrj- 



36 Lancaster's golden century 

culturalists reap the benefit of their labors." 
" Kosciusko of Poland, De La Fayette of France 
and Washington of America, a trio of freemen 
engaged in the cause of American Independence." 

Fourth of July was really the great day of the 
year. When the clock struck seven a merry peal 
from the Cotton Factory bell proclaimed the 
breakfast hour. In a little time, discharge of 
cannon and volleys of musketry followed. Then 
came martial music and the parades. At one 
o'clock dinner with copious libations. 

These dinners were usually held at some of the 
numerous taverns which had helped to give Lan- 
caster a far spread fame for hospitality. There 
was the Indian Queen, the Black Horse, the Sign 
of the Fox Chase, Cross Keys, Rising Sun, Sign 
of the Lamb, Sign of the Wagon, The Swan, the 
Leopard, the Grape, Sign of the Anchor. Lan- 
caster had many famous hostelries in the olden 
days. The landlords and innkeepers were often 
men of prominence and intelligence. During the 
Revolution the Supreme Executive Council of 
Pennsylvania and the Committee of Correspond- 
ence and Observation met at " The Grape Inn." 
Tradition also says that Washington was a guest 
at the " Grape " when in Lancaster. Buchanan 
always made it his headquarters. The '' Cross 
Keys " was the resort of the Quakers. Lafayette 
stopped at the '' State Arms " of which Henry 
Slaymaker was proprietor. 

In 1 82 1, Lancaster had a number of churches, 



THE LANCASTER OF 1 82 1 37 

representing a diversity of religious views, and 
yet in spite of all this, the community has always 
been wonderfully free from religious controversy. 
The Mennonites, who were among the very first 
to come to the county, under the leadership of 
Hans Herr, and who became the first regularly 
organized denomination in the county, had thous- 
ands of members scattered through the city and 
county of Lancaster, one hundred years ago. The 
Amish, then as now, met in private houses. The 
Friends or Quakers had at least a half dozen 
meeting houses. 

The Lutherans had come to Lancaster prior to 
1 730. The year of Lancaster's incorporation was 
the year of the Founding of Trinity Lutheran 
Church. The first church started in 1734 and 
dedicated in 1738 stood on the site now occupied 
by Trinity Chapel. When the Church of the 
Holy Trinity was rebuilt in 1766, Dr. Henry 
Melchior Muhlenberg preached the sermon. In 
this old church, the pipe organ, the frame of which 
is still one of the ornaments, was considered one 
of the magnificent instruments of the time. Con- 
cerning it a British prisoner in Lancaster in 1778 
wrote '' The largest pipe organ in America is now 
in use at the Lutheran Church." Some of the 
officers went to see this wonderful piece of me- 
chanism, and sent descriptions of it to their 
homes. The manufacturer had made every part 
of it with his own hands. It is in this church 
that Thomas Wharton, President of the Su- 



38 Lancaster's golden century 

preme Executive Council of Pennsylvania was 
buried with military honors in 1778; the pas- 
tor of this church, Dr. G. H. E. Muhlenberg 
was the first President of Franklin College 
in 1787; here Thomas Mifflin, the first Gov- 
ernor of Pennsylvania, was buried in 1800. In 
1 82 1 the Rev. C. L. F. Endress was pastor. 
He was a man of fine literary culture, a fin- 
ished classical scholar, an author of no mean 
ability and a preacher of rare power. In 191 1, 
Trinity celebrated the 150th anniversary of the 
laying of the comer stone of its present hand- 
some house of worship. Old Trinity church has 
been one of Lancaster's central landmarks for 
generations past. 

The people of the Reformed Church had come 
into Lancaster early in the eighteenth century. 
The Ferrees, members of the Reformed Walloon 
Church settled in Lancaster County in 1712. 
With the Ferrees came Isaac Le Fever and 
brought with him his French Bible. In 1727 
a number of Palatines came. As early as 1730 
a congregation was organized at Lancaster and 
several other parts of the county. Before long 
Rev. Michael Schlatter of St. Gall, Switzerland 
came to America, and visited among other 
churches, those in Lancaster city and county. The 
first church edifice was dedicated in 1736. The 
earliest extant records are entitled : " Church Pro- 
tocol of the newly built Reformed church, here in 
the island of Pennsylvania, in Cannastoken, in the 



THE LANCASTER OF 1 82 1 39 

new town named Lancaster." The record says, 
" Now as regards the building of this, our church, 
the beginning was made in the year 1736, and it 
was so far completed that on the 20th of June, 
1736 upon the festival of Whitsuntide we held 
divine worship in it for the first time. This 
first church was a log building. It stood on 
the rear of the lot, near what is now the 
corner of Grant and Christian streets. The 
old log church was displaced by a second edifice 
in 1753. There is a tradition that the bell 
of the church when it was first procured hung for 
sometime upon a hickory tree in the neighborhood 
of Centre Square (probably the famed hickory 
tree where the Indians are said to have held their 
council), and was rung there until the steeple 
was built for it. In 1821 the pastor of the First 
Reformed church was the Reverend John Henry 
Hoifmeier. It is an interesting fact that there is 
still living in Lancaster a woman 97 years of age, 
who was baptized by Father Hoffmeier. He was 
a man of fine spirit, serving here in Lancaster for 
25 years, from 1806 to 183 1. A marble panel 
in his memory is one of the ornaments of the 
present First Reformed church. The present 
church building with its handsome twin spires was 
erected in 1852. 

The Moravians were already settled in Lan- 
caster in 1 742, when Count Zinzendorf then head 
of the church, on his visit to America came to this 
city and preached in the old Lancaster Court 



40 Lancaster's golden century 

House, " where he made such an impression that 
many people asked him to send them a regular 
preacher of his denomination." Bishop Spangen- 
berg presided at a meeting in the Lancaster Court 
House in 1745, after which the Moravians of 
Lancaster organized themselves into a congrega- 
tion and planned to build their own house of 
worship. They owned a large tract of valuable 
land on Prince street which they turned into a 
cemetery, and purchased additional lots from the 
original Hamilton estate on the south side of 
Orange street from Market street westward, on 
which they erected a plain stone building. A 
new brick structure was built in 1820. The ori- 
ginal cornerstone of the first building is still to 
be seen on the southeastern upper corner of the 
present structure. In fact the old stone build- 
ing is still standing and is '' the oldest church 
building left standing in the city, one of the few 
old landmarks that have not succumbed to the 
ravages of time, nor been defaced by the ruthless 
hand of so-called improvement." Dr. J. Max 
Hark in his History of the Old Moravian Chapel 
says '* Here, that gentle missionary hero, old John 
Heckewelder, more than once delighted the 
scholars of the school with his interesting talks 
to them about his own experiences with the In- 
dians. Here David Zeisberger addressed our 
fathers and thrilled them with his own zeal and 
love for his " dear brown hearts," and once at 
least there came with him that knight errant of 



\ 



THE LANCASTER OF 1 82 1 4I 

the mission field Frederick Post. It was in Au- 
gust, 1762 when a great Indian Treaty was be- 
ing held in this city. Our two missionaries came 
at the head of no less than 30 Indians, while 300 
more, from all parts of the Province, were gath- 
ered together in an encampment just west of the 
town, and nightly terrified the inhabitants by the 
hideous noise of their drunken carousals. One 
evening these savages startled the little congre- 
gation exceedingly by appearing during the even- 
ing service and filling all the windows with their 
swarthy faces, some of them having large knives 
in their hands." In 1821 the Rev. Samuel Renike 
was pastor here. 

St. James Parish of the Episcopal Church, or- 
ganized in 1744 built its first structure in 1750, 
and erected a new church building in 1820, the 
southeast corner of the new building resting on 
the old foundation. It is said that when Bishop 
White dedicated the church on Sunday, October 
15, 1820 he wore the attire of an English Bishop, 
black silk stockings and silver shoe buckles. The 
name of William Augustus Muhlenberg, Rector 
of St. James Parish, will always be linked with all 
that is best in the life of old Lancaster. It was 
largely through his efforts that a better school 
system was introduced into the city. The story goes 
too that in St. James' churchyard lie two sisters 
who died in early womanhood, both noted for 
their beauty and character, one of whom might 
have become the wife of James Buchanan, the 



4^ LANCASTER'S GOLDEN CENTtfRl? 

other of William A. Muhlenberg, but for the un- 
willingness of their father, whose displeasure had 
been incurred by Mr. Muhlenberg because of the 
institution of an evening service. There is a record 
to the effect that when the Orphan Asylum in 
Philadelphia burned to the ground, the Episcopal 
Church of Lancaster raised 300 dollars on Janu- 
ary 31, 1822 to rebuild the institution. 

The Presbyterians had organized their congre- 
gation in Lancaster as early as 1763, and while 
their meeting house was being built on East 
Orange street on land granted by James Hamil- 
ton, the congregation met in the Court House. 
Rev. Mr. Sample was pastor for forty years, from 
1780 to 1820, dividing his ministrations between 
the Presbyterian churches of Leacock, Lancaster 
and Middle Octorara. In 1820 the church was 
enlarged and improved. A newspaper of April 
20, 1820 reports that " Divine Service may be ex- 
pected in the English Presbyterian meeting house 
in this city (the enlargement and alteration of 
which is now nearly completed) on the first 
Sabbath in May next at the usual hours." In 
1 82 1 Rev. Wm. Ashmead was pastor. 

The first regular mission of the Roman Catholic 
Church in Lancaster was established by Jesuit 
Missionaries from Maryland, who visited an 
Indian trading post in this county, as early as 
1730. The first church they erected in Lancaster 
was a log chapel. The church at Lancaster was first 
called " The Mission of St. John Nepomucene." 



THfi LANCASTER OF 1 821 43 

It is not known just when the name was changed 
to "St. Mary's of the Assumption." In 1821 
Father Holland was one of the two priests serving 
the parish. This man has an interesting history. 
Robert J. Thompson living on South Queen street 
had an attack of yellow fever. When scarcely any 
body would attend to his wants during his brief 
illness, the Rev. J. J. Holland, pastor of St. Mary's 
church, ministered to his wants, also contracted 
the disease, and died universally lamented. In 
St. Mary's cemetery a time-worn marble tomb 
marks the resting place of this young martyr- 
priest of St. Mary's, who at the age of 37 laid 
down his life for another. He was succeeded 
by Rev. Bernard Keenan who served St. Mary's 
Parish for a period of fifty-four years, and who 
according to an authoritative historian, ''endeared 
himself to all classes, both Catholics and Protes- 
tants, by his actions and languages, and by a 
beautiful charity." 

Methodist ministers first came to Lancaster 
County in 1 78 1 and formed the Lancaster Circuit 
a year later, under the appointment of Rev. 
William Partridge. In the city of Lancaster the 
Rev. Jacob Gruber preached occasionally about 
1805. The first regular service held in town was 
at the house of Philip Benedict by Rev. Henry 
Boehm in 1807. A number of circuit preachers 
followed. In 1821 the Methodists had no regu- 
lar church home in Lancaster. For a time they 
held service in a room over the market house, 
in the public square on Market street. 



44 LANCASTER'S GOLDEN CENTURY 

The Hebrew congregation in Lancaster has a 
history that is older than is commonly supposed. 
They had a society here prior to 1747. In that 
year the borough of Lancaster conveyed a half 
acre of land in the township of Lancaster " in trust 
for the Society of Jews settled in and about Lan- 
caster, to have and use the same as a burying- 
ground." This society is said to be the third in 
point of antiquity in the United States, the first 
having been in Newport, R. L and the second 
in New York City. One of the trustees to whom 
this lot was given was Joseph Simons, one of the 
richest and most prominent Indian traders in the 
province of Pennsylvania. For a time he had a 
store, about 1 740, at the southeast corner of Penn 
Square. He made frequent trips to the Ohio and 
Illinois country. He died in Lancaster in 1804 
and on his tombstone in the old Hebrew burial 
ground, is this beautiful inscription 

" And Joseph gave up the Ghost, 
And died in a good old age. 
An old man and full of years 
And was gathered to his people." 

Joseph Simon, departed this life the 12th day of the month 
Shebot, in the year 5565, corresponding with the 24th of Jan. 
1804, aged 92 years, in a good old age. 

" And he walked with God, and he was not ; for God took 
him." 

At the Portraiture Loan Exhibit in Lancaster 
in 1 91 2 there was exhibited a miniature of 
Rebecca Gratz, the granddaughter of Joseph 



THE LANCASTER OF 1 82 1 45 

Simons. She was often in Lancaster, and tradi- 
tion says that she was the inspiration of Sir Walter 
Scott's heroine, Rebecca in " Ivanhoe." 

There was an interesting attempt made at the 
establishment of a Union church in Lancaster 
about a hundred years ago. John Eliot an 
Englishman came to this country and settled in 
Lancaster about 1816. For several years he 
preached in the old Friend's meeting house, then 
he decided to erect a church called the Union 
church. He purchased a lot on Chestnut street 
between Duke and Queen and erected a church. 
In May, 1822 the following notice appears in a 
Lancaster paper: " The building recently erected 
in the city by Christians of all denominations will, 
with Divine permission, be dedicated to the public 
worship of Almighty God on the second Sabbath 
of this month." It was a splendid dream of inter- 
denominational fellowship, but it failed. 

Thus we see some of the elements entering into 
the Lancaster of 1821. ''A map of busy life, its 
fluctuations and its vast concerns." This was the 
motto of a newspaper in those comparatively quiet 
times. Life was neither busy, nor were the con- 
cerns vast. And yet men laid solid foundations 
in those earlier days in business, education, reli- 
gion and government for the development of in- 
fluential cities and great Commonwealths. 



CHAPTER III 

A PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 




I THIN a few 
years after Lan- 
caster became a 
city there were marked signs of public improve- 
ment. In 1823 the following ordinance was passed: 
'' From and after July ist it shall be the duty of 
the inhabitants of the city of Lancaster to pave 
their sidewalks with brick." From this time on 
there are frequent records of the building of 
bridges and grading, turnpiking, paving and the 
extension of streets. The streets of course kept 
their English names, relics of royalty. King, 
Queen, Prince, Duke. It is an interesting fact 
that in 1846 a resolution was adopted by Councils 
" to consider the propriety of altering the names 
of the streets of the city so as to give them more 
of an American or republican stamp." But the 
change was never made. 



A PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 47 

The beginning to secure a regular water system 
for the city was made in 1822. Efforts were made 
for several years to discover a water supply. A 
committee was appointed to " search for water." 
In 1829 the Lancaster Water Co. was incorpor- 
ated, and in 1831 a number of progressive and 
public-spirited citizens seeing that nothing was 
being accomplished urged the formation of a new 
company and the trial of a new plan. A town 
meeting was held and the appointment of an 
engineer urged, but still nothing was definitely ac- 
complished until 1836, when the mayor was au- 
thorized to borrow seventy thousand dollars in 
order to carry the project into effect. Eight acres 
of land at the east end of King street were bought 
as a site for a reservoir, contracts were entered 
into for building a dam, trenches were dug in the 
streets, pipes laid, and by February 1837 water 
was brought into thp city. In 185 1 another 
reservoir was built, in 1882 a standpipe was 
erected for serving the higher parts of the city, 
and since then continuous improvements in the 
way of pumping stations and filtering plant have 
made the Lancaster Water Works a credit to the 
city and adequate to its needs. 

In days of yore a man's loyalty to his Fire 
Company was one of his chief sources of interest. 
There is a reference as far back as 1 744 to the use 
of ladders, hooks and buckets in the extinguishing 
of fires. In 1761 an engine house stood on West 
King street between Water and Mulberiy streets, 



48 Lancaster's golden century 

In 1765 the burgesses agreed that a house be 
erected to contain three fire engines on the north- 
west corner of the market house. At the sugges- 
tion of the committees of the three fire companies, 
the Sun, Union and Friendship, an engine was im- 
ported from England. Active and public-spirited 
citizens did their best to defend the town from 
fire, in spite of crude and ineffective implements. 
Volunteer fire companies were in existence for 
over a century and formed the centre of a great 
deal of the social and political life of the citizens 
of the community. There was great rivalry as to 
the honor of priority between them. The quar- 
terly banquets which after 1830 were changed into 
yearly banquets were fixed institutions in Lancas- 
ter for many years. In 1820 the Washington 
Company was organized, in 1836 the American, 
in 1839 the Humane, in 1852 the Shiffler, in 1856 
the Empire. In 1882 a paid city fire department 
was substituted for the volunteer system, and has 
since kept pace in equipment and efficiency with 
the development of the city and the needs of 
modern life. 

Among the great events of historical note in 
Lancaster in early days was the visit of General 
Lafayette. The citizens of Lancaster, not behind 
the rest of the nation in the expression of their 
gratitude toward this illustrious defender of 
liberty, invited him when he came to the United 
States in 1824-25 to honor their city by a visit. 
On July 27, 1825, he came to Lancaster and was 



A PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 49 

elaborately entertained by the people. In the 
morning of the halcyon day General Lafayette was 
met in Chester county by a committee of citizens 
from Lancaster. '' Three elegant barouches, each 
drawn by four fine horses, had been secured for 
conducting the General and his suite to Lancas- 
ter." As he entered Lancaster county he was re- 
ceived by an escort of cavalry and formally wel- 
comed as the guest of the county. Two miles 
east of Lancaster city a battalion of city infantry 
and the '' Strasburg Blues" received him. Young 
men with sashes and badges and cockades 
ranged under separate banners, troops of citizens 
on horseback, farmers with ears of wheat in their 
hats as emblems of plenty, thousands of citizens of 
all ages, joined in the welcome. There was a 
salute of thirteen guns as he entered the city and 
the band played " Hail Columbia." 

On King street an immense floral arch had 
been erected. At the corner of King and 
Duke streets, Lafayette was saluted by fifty 
veterans of the Revolution, lined up on a 
platform in front of the Farmer's Bank. The 
historian says, "As the General gazed on the 
veterans he said, * These are the wrecks of that 
gallant band that in the vigor of youth and 
full strength of manhood, stood by me, side by 
side in the hour of their country's peril : That 
country — that grateful country — will, smooth the 
pillow of their declining years.' " On another 
arch on King street was inscribed, " Hail, Friend 



50 Lancaster's golden century 

of Liberty " and '' Brandywine, 1776 — Yorktown 
1 781." There were a number of arches on West 
King street, some of them decorated with portraits 
of Washington, Wayne, Hand, Montgomery and 
Franklin. The procession then moved to Frank- 
lin College on the west side of North Queen street, 
between Lemon and James, the same building 
formerly known as " The Old Store House," built 
by the State of Pennsylvania early in the Revolu- 
tionary period for the housing of military sup- 
plies. From there Lafayette went to the hotel 
where he was welcomed by Mayor Lightner and 
given a dinner prepared by the ladies of Lancas- 
ter. In the evening a complimentary ball was 
given in his honor in Masonic Hall. He left the 
ball to attend a dinner given to him by the 
veterans of 1776 at the house of Leonard Eich- 
holtz. There Lafayette drank a toast to the 
memory of General Washington and then to the 
memory of Generals Warren, Montgomery, 
Mercer, Nash, Greene, Hand, Wayne, Gates, 
St. Clair, Morgan and " our departed female 
patriots." Next morning Lafayette visited the 
Lancastrian School at Prince and Chestnut streets 
and was greeted by several hundred boys and 
girls, who arose and sang as he entered the door, 

" Hero Hail ! all hail to thee 
Champion of our liberty." 

Later Lafayette dined with George Ross, son 
of the Signer of the Pecl^rat;ipn of Independence, 



A PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 5^ 

who lived at the northwest corner of Prince and 
Prague streets. At four o'clock he went to the 
Court House and was given another banquet by a 
hundred citizens *' in the same room in which 
General Washington dined on his visit to the city." 
After a number of toasts to Lancaster and a 
variety of patriotic themes, Lafayette concluded 
with a classic toast to '' Our Fair Countrywomen." 

" Woman, the happiest pledge of Heaven's good will, 
Woman, the perfect picture of its skill ; 
Woman, who all our noblest thoughts employs, 
Woman, the center of all earthly joys." 

The next day he left for Baltimore on an ele- 
gant traveling carriage drawn by four gray 
horses, after which he went to Washington where 
he was the guest of the President of the United 
States. When the death of Lafayette occurred in 
1834, no community felt the loss more keenly than 
did Lancaster. City councils ordered its halls to 
be draped in mourning for a period of six months. 

It was during the period under consideration 
that rapid improvements were made in transpor- 
tation which finally ended in bringing the railroad 
to Lancaster. In very early days of course pack 
horses were used as a means of transportation. 
The bridle paths were usually Indian trails. 
These were soon superseded by the King's High- 
ways, one of the most important of which was the 
" great road " from Philadelphia to Lancaster. 
Then cmne the turnpike period with th^ incorpor^ 



52 Lancaster's golden century 

ation in 1792 of the Philadelphia and Lancaster 
Turnpike Road Co., and for a time the travel by- 
stage line became enormous. This turnpike to 
Philadelphia, 62 miles long was one of the earliest 
and most important enterprises in the state, and 
was the first road of the kind made in the United 
States. There were sixty taxerns on the route be- 
tween Lancaster and Philadelphia, almost one for 
every mile. 

This too was the period of the Conestoga 
wagon. It is not known who first made a 
Conestoga wagon, but it is given to Lancaster 
county to claim the honor. The wonderful breed 
of horses raised here, powerful draught horses, 
and the unique canvas-covered wagons were the 
special pride of the owners. The Conestoga 
wagon of the Revolution and post-Revolution 
period, known as, " The Ship of Inland Com- 
merce " was said to be far superior to anything 
of that date in England. Witmer's bridge, which 
was erected in 1799, and spans the Conestoga a 
short distance east of the city, was on the direct 
wagon route from Philadelphia to the western 
part of Pennsylvania. The ponderous Cones- 
toga team was superseded by the canal boat and 
railway car. Previous to this change, the turn- 
pike presented a busy scene — an almost unbroken 
procession of these wagons, " each of them drawn 
by six strong large horses, and many of the teams 
having a row of bells hanging over the collar of 
each horse." After the loss of their occupation, 



A PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 53 

because of the inroads of canals and railroads, the 
wagoners got up a song which ran as follows : 

" Oh, it's once I made money by driving my team, 
But now all is hauled on the railroad by steam. 
May the devil catch the man that invented the plan. 
For its ruined us poor wagoners, and every other man." 

Then came the experiment of the Conestoga 
Navigation Company, a canal scheme to use the 
waters of the Conestoga for receiving and send- 
ing goods to Baltimore and Philadelphia. By 
means of nine locks and slackwater pools, com- 
munication 1 8 miles in length was secured from 
Lancaster to Safe Harbor on the Susquehanna at 
the mouth of the Conestoga. By means of the tide- 
water canal to Port Deposit a navigable communi- 
cation was opened to Baltimore. This work was 
completed in 1829. Reigart's landing was a busy 
place in those days. Pleasure and packet boats, 
some sixty and seventy feet long, drawn by horses, 
conveyed passengers and merchandise to and fro 
from lock to lock. 

The slow and safe transportation by packet 
boat was soon displaced by the coming of the 
railroad. 

As early as 1826 the State Legislature granted 
a charter for the Columbia, Lancaster and Phila- 
delphia Railroad. Preliminary surveys were 
made by Major Wilson and Joshua Scott, of Lan- 
caster, who was considered one of the best civil 
engineers and draughtsmen in the state. By 



54 LANCASTER'S GOLDEN CENTURY 

1828 the engineers reported they had located 
twenty miles of the road east from Columbia, 
running in an almost straight line from Little 
Conestoga tO' Big Conestoga Creek, by way of 
what is now known as the '' Cut-off." Progressive 
citizens protested, obtained an appropriation of 
sixty thousand dollars from the state and had the 
survey changed so as to have the railroad run 
through Lancaster. The change necessitated the 
building of several important bridges. On the last 
day of March, 1834 three passenger coaches 
drawn by horses arrived at Columbia from Lan- 
caster, and three days thereafter the locomotive 
made its first trip. On the day appointed for the 
opening of the road from Columbia to Philadel- 
phia, Governor Wolf, members of the Legislature 
and other distinguished guests arrived at Colum- 
bia by way of canal from Harrisburg. *' The 
cars were in waiting " says the historian, " with 
locomotive attached and steam up. The cars were 
taken to Lancaster in one hour. When the dis- 
tinguished party passed over the road from Lan- 
caster to Philadelphia on April 16, 1834, they 
were met at every station with crowds of people 
who came from their farms and workshops to see 
the novel sight." W. B. Wilson in his histoiy of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad says that the first two 
locomotives commissioned on the same day were 
called the " Lancaster " and the '' Columbia." 
The weight of the " Lancaster " was 8 tons and 
was capable of drawing 56 tons, It took eight 



A PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 55 

hours to run from Columbia to Philadelphia, the 
expenses for the trip being $14.60, of which the 
engineer and his attendants received $4. In 1835 
an act was passed authorizing the company to ex- 
tend the road to Mt. Joy and Harrisburg. In 
1857 the Reading and Columbia Railroad was in- 
corporated. 

In the war with Mexico Lancaster county fur- 
nished a number of soldiers for the armies of 
General Scott and General Taylor. Many of the 
men served under Taylor at Palo Alto, Reseca de 
la Palma and Monterey, and under Scott at Vera 
Cruz and the campaign which led to the capture 
of Mexico City. Lieut. Luther and Lieut, (later 
Captain) Roland won honors and promotion in 
this war. A Lancaster writer describes among 
his memories a visit made to Lancaster by 
General Taylor, the twelfth President of the 
United States. It appears that he stopped here 
on his way to Washington. 

Around 1850 a group of municipal public 
buildings were erected in Lancaster including the 
present Court House, the prison at the east end 
of the city, Odd Fellows Hall, Fulton Hall and 
Franklin and Marshall College. It seems to have 
been a period of rapid growth for the city. It is 
said that a thousand residences were erected within 
a few years. By the inevitable march of progress 
the venerable historic Court House in Centre 
Square was outgrown, and in 1852 a site was se- 
cured at Duke and East King streets, contracts 



$6 Lancaster's golden century 

made and the present structure completed at a 
cost of $166,000. The Odd Fellows had been 
-meeting in a room rented in the old Museum 
building corner of Chestnut and North Queen 
streets, until 1846 when lots were purchased from 
ex-Judge Ellis Lewis one of which was occupied 
by the old Quaker church and the other used as 
a burial ground by the same society. Here a 
handsome building was dedicated in 1852 by the 
Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. At that time there 
were 2500 members of that fraternity in the city. 

In speaking of lodges of olden times it is well 
to recall that Lodge No. 43 F. and A. M. ranks 
as one of the oldest Masonic organizations in 
America. When Major Andre was held here as 
a prisoner in 1775 he was known as a Mason. 
In 1798 it was agreed that the borough of Lan- 
caster was to build the first story and the lodge the 
second story of the building now known as City 
Hall. From 1800 to the present time the mem- 
bers have continued holding their meetings in the 
old hall. Some time prior to the building of the 
hall, the lodge was visited by George Washington, 
and later by Lafayette. In the hall to this day 
there is a set of implements in a case the frame 
of which was made from cedar wood growing over 
the grave of Washington at Mount Vernon. 

The building of the present Fulton Hall in 1852 
on the site of the old Lancaster Jail on Prince 
street was an event of great significance in the 
development of Lancaster. The Lancaster County 



A PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 57 

Commissioners sold the site to Peter G. Eberman 
and Christopher Hager for $8,400. Later Chris- 
topher Hager became the sole owner. He at once 
began tearing down the old prison, and procured 
Samuel Sloane as architect, and John Sener as 
builder of Fulton Hall. Later Christopher Hager 
sold his interest to the Fulton Hall Association. 
The Examiner and Herald of May 5, 1852 says, 
" The new opera house to be erected is to be 
called Fulton Hall in honor of Robert Fulton the 
discoverer of the power of steam as applied to 
navigation, a native of Lancaster County. The 
proprietor has evinced a laudable pride in the com- 
memoration of one whom Lancaster county may 
feel pride in claiming as one of her most distin- 
guished sons." Fulton Hall was formally opened 
to the public on October 14, 1852, the principal 
address of the occasion being made by Judge 
Hayes. The speaker referred to the fact that 
new life was being infused into the city of Lan- 
caster by the erection of many buildings and that 
5000 inhabitants had been recently added to the 
population. The wooden image of Robert Fulton 
which still stands above the doorway was carved 
by a Mr. Cannon of Philadelphia, and is an inter- 
esting if not highly artistic piece of work. In 
Fulton Hall a long line of distinguished actors, 
orators and musicians have appeared in the past 
seventy years. Ole Bull with his matchless violin, 
Joe Jefferson, Booth, Barrett, Madame Modjeska, 
Horace Greeley, Wendell Phillips, Henry Ward 



58 Lancaster's golden century 

Beecher, John B. Gough, Adelina Patti, Woodrow 
Wilson, Sarah. Bernhardt, Nazimova, and a host 
of other notables have appeared in this historic 
old structure. 

The formal opening of Franklin and Marshall 
College was held in Fulton Hall on the 7th of 
June, 1853. This college was the result of the 
union of Franklin College of Lancaster and Mar- 
shall College of Mercersburg, Pa. At the open- 
ing of the new institution addresses were deliv- 
ered by Judge Hayes, Dr. J. W. Nevin and Bishop 
Potter. Until the new buildings were erected on 
'* College Hill," the students met in Franklin Col- 
lege on North Lime Street. At first there appear 
to have been frequent troubles between town and 
gown, due to the rivalry of the fire companies. It 
appears the students '' ran with the Union." Dr. 
E. V. Gerhart was the first president of the col- 
lege. Twenty-two acres were bought in the north- 
western part of the city and buildings erected. 
When the corner stone of the main building was 
laid on 24th of July, 1854 a procession marched 
from the old Franklin College to the new site and 
listened to an address by Dr. Henry Harbaugh. 
The new college was formally dedicated on the 
1 6th of May, 1856. At the same time with the 
erection of the main building two literary society 
halls were built, at great sacrifice on the part of 
the students themselves. Since then numerous 
buildings have been erected, including the J. Watts 
de Peyster Library, and a handsome and 



A PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 59 

thoroughly equipped science building, an astron- 
omical observatory and an academy building. 
The area of the college grounds is now fifty-eight 
acres. Franklin and Marshall College does not 
pretend to do the work of a university or a techni- 
cal school. Its claim for patronage is that it is 
a thoroughly first-class American college, in which 
a careful foundation can be laid that will prepare 
young men for an intelligent pursuit of profes- 
sional studies, for the work of higher education 
and the business pursuits of life. The college has 
been in full sympathy with the progress of the 
age in art, science, literature and business under 
the leadership of its several presidents, Dr. E. V. 
Gerhart, Dr. J. W. Nevin, Dr. Thos. G. Apple, 
Dr. John S. Stahr and Dr. H. H. Apple. Frank- 
lin and Marshall College stands under the general 
care of the Reformed Church in the United States, 
but students of all faiths and creeds are found in 
its halls. 

The Yeates Institute of Lancaster was incor- 
porated in 1857. It had for its object the edu- 
cation of young men in all branches of academic 
courses of learning. The corporation was liber- 
ally endowed by Miss Catharine Yeates from 
whom it takes its name. 

Franklin and Marshall Academy continued in 
connection with the College until 1872 when the 
first building was erected for its own use. It is in 
the best sense a training school for boys who 
desire to go to college. 



6o Lancaster's golden century 

The first State Normal School was erected at 
Millersville, Lancaster County in 1859. 

The Theological Seminary of the Reformed 
Church did not come to Lancaster until 1871, and 
therefore belongs to a later period. The person- 
ality and work of John Williamson Nevin, how- 
ever, belong to the period now under considera- 
tion. This distinguished theologian of Scotch- 
Irish ancestry came to Lancaster shortly after the 
removal of Marshall College of which he had 
been president. After residing in the city for a 
year, and making his home at Windsor Forge, 
near Churchtown for two years, he settled per- 
manently at Caernarvon Place. In the fall of 1861 
he became professor of History and Aesthetics in 
Franklin and Marshall College, and in 1866 presi- 
dent of the institution, a position which he held 
for ten years. From 1876 to 1886 he continued 
to reside at Caernarvon Place. Dr. Nevin occu- 
pied high rank among the most distinguished men 
of his age. An eminent scholar, a profound theo- 
logian recognized on two continents, an independ- 
ent thinker, a vigorous writer, he exerted a power- 
ful influence. 

Another distinguished son of Lancaster of the 
pre-Civil War period was the Right Reverend 
Samuel Bowman, pastor of St. James' church from 
1827 to 1858 when he was chosen Bishop of the 
Diocese of Pennsylvania. The whole community 
begged him to remain in Lancaster, and induced 
him to keep his residence here while performing 



A PERIOD OF DEVELOPMENT 



6i 



his episcopal duties in the western part of the 
state. The Bishop Bowman Home was incor- 
porated in 1857 as an institution for the aged and 
infirm designed to provide for Christian people a 
comfortable home in the evening of life. The 
Home for Friendless Children was likewise estab- 
lished in 1859 by the efforts and contributions of 
Miss Mary Bowman and a number of citizens who 
were impressed with the necessity of rescuing 
from degradation and idleness children who were 
left without a proper protector. 

It is thus evident that along every line, material, 
intellectual, social and industrial, Lancaster made 
commendable progress in the period leading up 
to the Civil War. 




OLD BREW HOUSE 




CHAPTER IV 

JAMES BUCHANAN THE CITIZEN 

AMES BUCHANAN, the fifteenth 
President of the United States, was 
Lancaster's most distinguished citizen 
during a period of years that embraced 
some of the most significant and tragic events in 
the nation's history. In that wonderful year 
1809, the year in which Alfred Tennyson, the most 
gifted poet who has used the English language 
since Wordsworth, was born, the year in which 
William Gladstone, the most powerful, versatile, 
and high-minded statesman of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, was born, the year in which Charles Darwin, 
the greatest naturalist, and the chief scientific dis- 
coverer of modern times, was born, the year in 
which Abraham Lincoln, the most picturesque and 
stimulating figure that America has given to the 
world's history, was born — in that same year a 
young Dickinson College graduate, only eighteen 
years of age, came into this community for the 
purpose of studying law, little conscious of the 
fact that the legal principles which he was to learn 
here were destined to be applied by him during 
the coming years in the attempted solution of some 



tm 



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z2^/2e^ 



(2y^cc>^^€^z^<;'2-^d^^^^Z^ 



JAMES BUCHANAN, THE CITIZEN 63 

of the most difficult national and international 
problems of the century. That he made good use 
of the three years during which he was a law 
student in this city, previous to his admittance to 
the Bar, is evidenced by the fact that later in life 
when he wrote his autobiography, he said concern- 
ing this period, " I came to Lancaster to study 
law with the late Mr. Hopkins, in the month of 
December, 1809, and was admitted to practice in 
November, 1 812. I determined that if severe 
application would make me a good lawyer, I 
should not fail in this particular; and I can say, 
with truth, that I have never known a harder 
student than I was at that period of my life. I 
studied law, and nothing but law, or what was 
essentially connected with it. I almost every 
evening took a lonely walk and embodied the ideas 
which I had acquired during the day in my own 
language. This gave me a habit of extempore 
speaking." 

In 1 810, young Buchanan's father in a letter 
wrote to him, " I am very glad to hear that you 
are so well pleased with Lancaster and with the 
study of the law." It was in the year that saw 
the commencement of the War of 1812, under the 
Madison Administration, that James Buchanan 
was admitted to the practice of law at the Lan- 
caster County Bar — a Bar, which according to 
James Ford Rhodes, America's foremost historian, 
" has always been noted for its excellent lawyers." 
He Boon became a public figure in the community 



64 Lancaster's golden century 

which he had chosen for permanent residence. He 
came into prominence in 1814 through a speech 
that he delivered at a public meeting in Lancaster, 
after the City of Washington had been captured 
by the British. As a Federalist in politics, he had 
disapproved of the war, but when the capture of 
Washington had sent a flame of patriotism 
through the state, and every patriot was called 
upon to defend the country against an invading 
enemy, and a public meeting was called in Lan- 
caster for the purpose of obtaining volunteers to 
march to the defense of Baltimore, James 
Buchanan, then twenty-three years of age, ad- 
dressed the people of the community in public and 
was among the first to register his name as a 
volunteer. With a company of dragoons he 
marched to Baltimore and served until he was 
honorably discharged. Upon his return, the 
County of Lancaster elected him a member of the 
House of Representatives in the Legislature of 
Pennsylvania, where he served with rare ability 
to the end of the session. From 1 816 to 1820 his 
law practice in this community increased rapidly. 
He writes, " My practice in Lancaster and some of 
the adjoining counties is extensive, laborious and 
lucrative." It was during this period that he de- 
livered before the Washington Society of Lancas- 
ter a speech which subjected him for the time to 
much criticism because of his antagonistic attitude 
to the administration at Washington in regard to 
its methods of conducting the War of 1812, 



JAMES BUCHANAN, THE CITIZEN 65 

When Buchanan's writings were collected and 
edited by John Basset Moore, only the concluding 
part of this oration could be found. It was 
printed in the first volume of Buchanan's works. 
The late W. U. Hensel, however, discovered by 
accident the opening part of the speech in time 
to have it inserted in the closing volume. The 
circumstances of this discovery probably gave as 
much durable satisfaction to the ardent historical 
spirit of Mr. Hensel as any event in his life. 

It was during this period, too, that Mr. 
Buchanan, when only twenty- five years of age, 
undertook alone to defend Judge Franklin on 
articles of impeachment which had been inspired 
against him largely by political bias and party 
asperity. 

It was during this period, too, that there came 
into his life in this community one. of the saddest 
romances that cruel fate ever inflicted upon a 
youth. As a distraction from his great grief, he 
plunged into public life again, accepted the nomin- 
ation to Congress, was elected on the Federalist 
ticket, and took his seat as the representative from 
this district when he was barely twenty-nine years 
of age. To this high office he was reelected every 
two years until 1830. It was his intention to re- 
tire from public life at the close of Congress, 
March, 1831. He was spoken of for the vice- 
presidency, but discouraged the idea by saying, 
" I shall retire to private life after the close of the 
present session, without casting on^ lingering look 



66 

behind. As a private citizen I shall always re- 
member with the deepest sensibility the many 
favors I have received from the people of the dis- 
trict, whom I have so long represented." But 
circumstances willed otherwise. President Jack- 
son appointed him Minister to Russia just at the 
time he was contemplating renewing the practice 
of law, for which he was so well fitted because 
of his competent learning, industry, ready address, 
reasoning power, and high integrity. In his diary 
for March 21, 1832, he has this significant 
paragraph : 

'' I left Lancaster in the stage early in the morn- 
ing for Washington and arrived in Baltimore the 
same evening. Although my feelings are not very 
easily excited, yet my impressions on this day 
were solemn and sad. I was leaving a city where 
I had spent the best years of my life, where I had 
been uniformly the popular favorite, and, above 
all, where I had many good and true friends who 
had never abandoned me under the most trying 
circumstances. Among these people I had ac- 
quired a competence for a man of moderate 
wishes, and I think I may say without vanity, my 
professional and personal character stood ver\^ 

high." 

In a letter from Russia, written during October 
of the same year, he speaks of the good city of 
Lancaster, and of his interest in all the little news 
of the town. From 1830 to 1848 it was possible 
for him to spend comparatively little of hi? time 



JAMES BUCHANAN, TPIE CITIZEN 6^ 

in this community because of his wide-spread pub- 
lic duties; for upon his return from Russia he was 
chosen United States Senator and continued to 
fill that office ten years, after which he became 
Secretary of State under President Polk. These 
were years of strenuous labor for Lancaster's fore- 
most citizen. In one letter he writes, *' nearly half 
of my time is now occupied in writing answers to 
mass, county, township and association meetings." 
During this period up to 1848, Mr. Buchanan, 
when at home in Lancaster, resided in a bachelor 
establishment, a spacious brick house on East King 
street. 

From 1849, when he retired to private life, 
after having been President Polk's Secretary of 
State, until 1853, when President Pierce appointed 
him as United States Minister to England, he 
spent a great deal of his time in this community. 
He left office March 4, 1849, with the fixed pur- 
pose of not entering public life again. With this 
in view he purchased that beautiful ideal of a 
statesman's abode known as '' Wheatland " situ- 
ated half a mile west of Lancaster. This sub- 
stantial old mansion had for some years been occu- 
pied as a summer residence by the Honorable Wil- 
liam M. Meredith, an eminent lawyer who became 
Secretary of the Treasury under President Taylor. 
Nothing shows the character of Mr. Buchanan in a 
higher light than the honorable way in which the 
purchase of " Wheatland " was conducted. From 
Mr. Buchanan's correspondence it appears that 



6S Lancaster's golden century 

after the agreement for purchase had been made 
and part of the purchase money paid, Mr. 
Buchanan learned indirectly that Mr. Meredith 
regretted the bargain, upon which he sat down 
and wrote the following letter, which is a model 
of old-time courtesy. . . . 
"My dear Sir: 

I have seen Mr. Fordney since I came here, 
who read me a part of your second letter. From 
this I infer that you regret that you have parted 
with Wheatland. Now, my dear sir, if you have 
the least inclination to retain it, speak the word, 
and our bargain shall be as if it never had been. 
It will not put me to the least inconvenience, as I 
have an excellent house in Lancaster. Indeed I 
feel a personal interest in having you in the midst 
of our society, and if you should retain Wheatland 
I know that after you shall be satisfied with fame 
and fortune you will make this beautiful residence 
your place of permanent abode." 

To which Mr. Meredith replied with equal 
courtesy in the following words : 

" I had to express to you my deep sense of the 
courtesy and consideration which induced you to 
make me the offer which your letter contained. 
I cannot accept it, because to do so would be to 
take advantage of your friendly impulses, which 
I ought not and cannot do." 

That was a fine example of the square deal. Mr. 
Buchanan bought the property and removed to it 



JAMES BUCHANAN, THE CITIZEN 69 

the furniture which he had hitherto used in Wash- 
ington and Lancaster, establishing in his new 
home a residence noted for its comfort, dignity, 
repose, respectability, and hospitality. 

Though he had retired to private life during 
this short period, his life was by no means one of 
ease. He writes in 1851 from Wheatland, " My 
correspondence is now so heavy as to occupy my 
whole time from early morning until late at night. 
My life is now one of great labor, but I am 
philosopher enough not to be very anxious. The 
mass of letters before me is prodigious." At an- 
other time he writes, " I now receive about fifty 
letters a day. Last Saturday there were sixty- 
nine, and the cry is ' still they come '. I labor 
day and night." 

And yet he found time to do a great many 
things for the higher life of the community. This 
was the period in which Franklin College, of Lan- 
caster, was united with Marshall College, of 
Mercersburg, and the present institution, known 
as Franklin and Marshall College, was established 
by a union of the two. In bringing about that 
union Mr. Buchanan was of great service. He 
had been interested in Franklin College from an 
early date, and wrote the deed of transfer by 
means of w^hich the real and personal estate of 
Franklin College was transferred to the new 
Franklin and Marshall College. He is described 
at that tim^e as a man of portly form, with head 
inclined to one side, a peculiar top-knot of white 



70 Lancaster's golden century 

hair that made him look older than the sixty-two 
years that he had actually lived. One writer says 
that courtesy had become his second nature and 
he spoke to boys on the street as if they had been 
princes of the blood. Naturally this foremost 
citizen of Lancaster was elected the first president 
of the newly constituted Board of Trustees of 
Franklin and Marshall College, an ofifice which he 
held for twelve years. He was a faithful friend 
of the college. As far back as 1827 his name ap- 
peared on the subscription list of old Franklin 
College, and when old Marshall College was still 
at Mercersburg Mr. Buchanan gave it a scholar- 
ship of $500.00, and when the new institution was 
formed in Lancaster he contributed $1,000.00 to 
■ the fund which was then raised for the erection of 
buildings. He helped to direct the policy of the 
college, and when he was in Lancaster he was 
always present at its public exercises. At the 
literary society anniversaries he had a kind word 
for each youthful speaker, which the recipient was 
sure to bear away as a precious remembrance. 

When a new college building was to be erected 
at the time of the union of Franklin and Marshall 
College, the citizens of Lancaster contributed 
$25,000.00. Then came the question where should 
the new building be erected. Some suggested a 
tract on West Orange street; others suggested a 
location at the eastern end of the city. When this 
site was proposed. President Buchanan said, " I 
do not think the best location for a literary in- 



J-AMES BUCHANAN, THE CITIZEN ft 

stitution is between a court house and a jail." 
One day Mr. Buchanan and the other members of 
the board went to the northwestern part of Lan- 
caster in carriages and unanimously decided to 
erect the buildings on what is now known as 
College Hill, the highest ground in Lancaster. 
" Thank God," said Dr. Harbaugh at the laying 
of the corner-stone, " the college stands higher 
than the jail. Education must be lifted up, and 
crime let sink to its lowest depths." 

During these years, Mr. Buchanan enjoyed the 
fullest confidence of the community and found 
great satisfaction in the hours that he spent at 
Wheatland. He writes to a friend, '' The birds 
are now singing around the house, and we are en- 
joying the luxury of a fine day in the opening 
spring." 

In 1853 he was again thrown into active public 
life by being appointed United States Minister 
to England under the administration of President 
Pierce. Before he left for London, he wrote a 
letter to the citizens of the community in answer 
to an invitation which he had received to be 
present at a public dinner to be given in his honor. 
In this letter he opens his heart to the citizens of 
Lancaster. Among other things he says, 

" No event of my past life has afforded me 
greater satisfaction than this invitation, proceed- 
ing as it does, without distinction of party, from 
those who have known me the longest and known 
me the best. 



"J 2 Lancaster's golden century 

'' Born in a neighboring county, I cast my lot 
among you when little more than eighteen years 
of age, and have now enjoyed a happy home with 
you for more than forty-three years, except the 
intervals which I have passed in the public service. 
During this long period I have experienced more 
personal kindness, both from yourselves and from 
your fathers, than has, perhaps, ever been ex- 
tended to any other man in Pennsylvania who has 
taken so active a part, as I have done, in the ex- 
citing political struggles which have so peculiarly 
marked this portion of our history. 

'' It was both my purpose and desire to pass the 
remainder of my days in kind and friendly social 
intercourse with the friends of my youth and of 
my riper years, when invited by the President of 
rriy choice, under circumstances which a sense of 
duty rendered irresistible, to accept the mission to 
London. This purpose is now postponed, not 
changed. It is my intention to carry it into exe- 
cution, should a kind Providence prolong my days 
and restore me to my native land." 

From London he wrote, '' Everything about 
home is dear to me. You give me information 
concerning my neighbors in Lancaster, which I 
highly prize." While in England, this Lancaster 
citizen had the degree of Doctor of Civil Law 
conferred on him by Oxford University along with 
the poet, Alfred Tennyson. He returned from 
London to xA^merica, arriving at Wheatland in 
April, 1856. Within two months he was asked to 



James buchanan, the citizen yj 

accept the Democratic nomination for the presi- 
dency. Dr. Dubbs tells us in his history of Frank- 
lin and Marshall College that when Mr. Buchanan 
was nominated for the presidency by the Cincin- 
nati convention, the college boys became intensely 
excited. A number of them were among the first 
to hear the news, and they all immediately started 
on a run to inform Mr. Buchanan of his nomin- 
ation. In this race, William A. Duncan, after- 
wards a member of Congress, is said to have won 
the prize. Very soon, however, a large number 
of people gathered on the lawn at Wheatland, and 
Mr. Buchanan made an appropriate speech, a part 
of which was afterwards used against him in the 
campaign. 

After his election, and before his inauguration 
for the presidency, Wheatland became a storm 
center or a shrine, if you wish to call it by that 
name, for the politicians and prominent men of 
the country. When the time came to leave Wheat- 
land for the Capitol, just before the inauguration, 
Mr. Buchanan and the members of his bachelor 
household drove into Lancaster in a carriage, on 
a bleak winter morning, escorted all the way to 
the railroad station by an enthusiastic crowd of 
citizens. At the station he was received, his bio- 
grapher tells us, '' into a special car, built for the 
occasion, the windows of which were in colors that 
represented familiar scenes of and about Wheat- 
land." 

His immediate escort to the Capitol consisted 



74 Lancaster's golden century 

of the local military company, the Fencibles, com- 
mittees of councils, representatives of Franklin 
and Marshall College, and of the Board of Trus- 
tees of that institution, together with a number 
of personal friends and loyal citizens of Lancaster. 
Upon his return from Washington in i86i, 
after living in the fierce light that beats upon the 
throne, during one of the most disheartening and 
tragic periods of our Nation's history, he turned 
once more to Wheatland in the good old town 
which was bound up with every fibre of his heart. 
For he loved Lancaster with that intensity of 
local aifection and lofty pride which are peculiar 
to her citizens. A committee of citizens went to 
Washington to escort him back to the native soil. 
At the gates of his own county he was welcomed 
by one hundred and fifty citizens of Lancaster 
when his foot first fell upon the soil of the district 
which claimed him peculiarly as its own. The 
late Mr. Hensel has described the scene with 
these words, '*As the train which carried Mr. 
Buchanan and his friends and the popular escort 
now swelled to many hundreds, neared the city 
there was firing of cannon, pealing of bells, and 
the formation of a procession to escort the party 
through the streets of the city. The cars were 
stopped at the city limits, and Mr. Buchanan was 
conducted into an open barouche drawn by four 
gray horses, and with a great civic and military 
display he entered the city.'' The band played 
'* Home Again," the mayor welcomed Lancaster's 



JAMES BUCHANAN, THE CITIZEN 7S 

most distinguished citizen in a fitting speech, to 
which Mr. Buchanan responded in words that 
ought to live in the heart and memory of gener- 
ations to come. This is what he said, 
'* Mr. Mayor, my old Neighbors, Friends and 

Fellow- Citizens : 

I have not language to express the feelings 
which swell in my heart on this occasion; but I 
do most cordially thank you for this demonstra- 
tion of your personal kindness to an old man, 
who comes back to you ere long to go to his final 
rest. And here let me say that, having visited 
many foreign climes, my heart has ever turned to 
Lancaster as the spot where I would wish to live 
and die. When yet a young man, in far remote 
Russia, my heart was still with friends and 
neighbors in good old Lancaster. (Applause.) 

"Although I have always been true to you, I 
have not been so true to you as you have been 
to me. Your fathers took me up when a young 
man, fostered and cherished me through many 
long years. All of them have passed away, and 
I stand before you to-day in the midst of a new 
generation. (A voice in the crowd — ' I saw you 
mount your horse when you marched to Balti- 
more in the War of 1812.') The friendship of 
the fathers for myself has descended on their 
children. Generations of mortal men rise, and 
sink, and are forgotten, but the kindness of the 
past generation to me, now so conspicuous in the 
present, can never be forgotten. 



^b LAI^C ASTER S GOLDEN CENTtJRV 

" I have come to lay my bones among you, and 
during the brief, intermediate period which 
Heaven may allot me, I shall endeavor to per- 
form the duties of a good citizen, and a kind 
friend and neighbor. My advice shall be cheer- 
fully extended to all who may seek it, and my 
sympathy and support shall never be withheld 
from the widow and the orphan. (Loud Ap- 
plause.) All political aspirations have departed. 
What I have done, during a somewhat protracted 
public life, has passed into history. If, at any 
time, I have done aught to offend a single citizen, 
I now sincerely ask his pardon, while from my 
heart I declare that I have no feeling but that of 
kindness to any individual in this county. 

•'' I came to this city in 1809, more than half a 
century ago, and am, therefore, I may say, among 
your oldest citizens. When I parted from Presi- 
dent Lincoln, on introducing him to the Execu- 
tive Mansion, according to custom, I said to 
him : ' If you are as happy, my dear sir, on enter- 
ing this house as I am in leaving it and return- 
ing home, you are the happiest man in this 
country ! ' " 

At the conclusion of the speech, the procession 
moved toward Wheatland under an arch span- 
ning the street. He ascended the portico to the 
music of " Home, Sweet Home," and reentered 
upon the scenes of that tranquility in which it 
was his desire to spend the rest of his days. He 
always regarded that day as one of the proudest of 
his life. 



JAMES BUCHANAN, THE CITIZEN ^^ 

To the end of his days he remained the vener- 
able sage of Wheatland. To his home hundreds 
made pilgrimage. For all he had words of wel- 
come and counsel. Those who knew him still 
speak of the affluence of his kindly humor, of his 
grace and urbanity, of his personal integrity, of 
the purity of his mind, the honor of his spirit, 
the beauty of his character, the loveliness of his 
charity. A friend says, '' On one occasion when 
I was on a visit to Wheatland, I saw Mr. Buchanan 
go anxiously to the window and look upon the 
night which was cold and stormy with sleet and 
snow, and I heard him say, ' God help the poor 
to-night.' The very next day he sent quite a 
large sum of money to the mayor of Lancaster to 
buy fuel for the poor." He carried out the same 
idea, when in his Will he made provision for a 
coal fund which has proved to be a blessing to 
many needy families in this community for well- 
nigh fifty years. His deeds of charity were thick 
as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks in 
Vallambrosa. 

Those who knew him best speak constantly of 
his delightful social qualities. He was always 
the life and soul of every dinner party to which 
he was invited. Says one, " When he was in a 
vein of conversation and felt in the humor a 
whole room of people would sit all evening listen- 
ing with delight, no one daring to interrupt ex- 
cept in order by some leading question or remark 
to draw him out to talk more freely." 



7§ Lancaster's golden century 

No one can study the life of James Buchanan, 
especially in his later years, without having a 
high regard for his religious sincerity. When 
he was a mere boy studying Coke and Blackstone 
here in Lancaster, his father wrote to him these 
words, " Endeavor, my boy, to merit the esteem 
of Heaven.'' He never forgot that sentence. 
Later in life he wrote to his niece, Harriet Lane, 
in a very interesting letter penned at Wheat- 
land, " li I believed it necessary, I would advise 
you to be constant in your devotion to your God. 
He is a friend who will never desert you." He 
was a regular attendant upon church services both 
at Washington and in Lancaster, connecting him- 
self in this city with the Presbyterian church. 

John Motley says of William of Orange, that 
he went through life bearing the load of a people's 
sorrows upon his shoulders with a smiling face. 
That not all the clouds which calumny could col- 
lect ever dimmed to the eyes of a grateful and 
affectionate people the radiance of that loity 
mind to which they were accustomed in their 
darkest calamities to look for light, *'As long as 
he lived," says Motley, " he was the guiding 
star of a whole brave nation, and when he died 
the little children cried in the streets." So we 
may say that as far as this community is con- 
cerned James Buchanan was its guiding star and 
most illustrious citizen for half a century. li 
good citizenship consists, as a great living states- 
man recently said in an impressive tribute to 



JAMES BUCHANAN, TPIE CITIZEN 79 

Richard Watson Gilder, by no means in the hold- 
ing of public office, but in the wholesomeness and 
purity of one's life and in the quiet influence 
which radiates from one's life upon his neighbors 
and the community, in culture and acquaintance 
with the best, then we may well say that James 
Buchanan was a citizen of whom any commun- 
ity may be proud, a highly gifted, large-hearted, 
devoted citizen, a man plain and simple, yet 
crowned with the knightly virtues of truth, honor, 
purity and high-minded integrity. 

The fine old colonial mansion known as 
*' Wheatland," built on a knoll within the grounds 
of a small landed estate and surrounded by trees 
several centuries old, is still standing. Few per- 
sons visit Lancaster for the first time without 
making a pilgrimage to this historic spot, which 
in the hands of its present owner has lost none 
of its generous hospitality. In Woodward Hill 
on the slopes that reach down to the Conestoga, 
at a point from which may be seen some of the 
loveliest views of that lovely stream as it meanders 
among the flower-decked hills of Lancaster county, 
rest the remains of James Buchanan, Fifteenth 
President of the United States. 





ARCHED SPRING AT GEO. ROSS HI)USE 

CHAPTER V 

LANCASTER AND THE CIVIL WAR 



HE Legislature of Pennsylvania passed an 
Act in 1 780 declaring that all servitude 
for life or slavery of children in con- 
sequence of the slavery of their mothers should 
be abolished forever. There was considerable 
evasion of the law. The Quakers were active in 
their opposition to slavery, but some of the 
Scotch- Irish settlers in the Lancaster Townships 
continued to hold slaves. A number of fugitive 
slaves fled from the South into Pennsylvania. 
They were followed by their masters. There were 
many hairbreadth escapes and captures at Colum- 
bia where runaway slaves crossed the river. 

In the newspapers of Lancaster of a hundred 
years ago one finds the following notices : 
" Thirty Dollars reward for negro man, John 



LANCASTER AND THE CIVIL WAR 8 1 

Turner, ran away." " Twelve and a half cents 
reward. Ran away on April 20, 1822, a servant 
boy named James Crawford." '' Six and a fourth 
cents reward. Ran away from Peter Esbenshade 
a servant girl. Had on and took with her one 
new calico and one good linsey frock." '' For 
sale, the unexpired term of six years of a young 
healthy black girl." While these may not all 
have been slaves, yet it is evident that there was 
a strong underground railroad system in Lancas- 
ter county, helping negroes to escape from slavery 
in the South to freedom in the North. There 
were a number of stations along the route where 
the friends of the escaped slaves passed the fugi- 
tives on from one point to another. 

The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of 
1850 made this whole system not only hazardous 
but illegal. The first bloodshed in the United 
States caused by the Fugitive Slave Law occurred 
in Christiana, Lancaster county. Three runaway 
slaves came to the house of William Parker, near 
Christiana. They were claimed by Edward 
Gorsuch, a Maryland slave holder who obtained 
a warrant from the United States commissioners 
in Philadelphia for their arrest. When the 
marshal, Gorsuch, his son and several others 
came to Parker's house before daylight on Sep- 
tember II, 185 1 and tried to take away the 
runaway slaves by force, they met with opposi- 
tion. Gorsuch approaching the house cried: 
*' I will have my property dead or alive." He 



82 



was fired upon and mortally wounded. The son 
was likewise seriously wounded. The affair 
created great excitement. The state was in the 
midst of a political campaign, and it is thought 
that the incident caused the defeat of Wm. F. 
Johnston for governor. The negro who shot his 
master was smuggled through to Canada; the 
others were indicted and tried for treason in 
the United States Court at Philadelphia. Han- 
way was first tried and acquitted. The others 
were never brought to trial. It is thought now 
that under the excitement of the times it would 
not have been possible to get a jury in the State 
of Pennsylvania to convict the men for asserting 
their freedom. The " Christiana Riot " is scarcely 
less known or less significant than John Brown's 
riaid and the Harper's Ferry riot. It was the oc- 
casion of one of the opening battles in the cease- 
less conflict between Law and Liberty which 
reached a climax in the stirring days of the 
Civil War. 

The heaviest vote ever given for any candidate 
in Lancaster county up to i860 was cast for Abra- 
ham Lincoln in November of that year. Out of 
nineteen thousand votes cast by Lancaster county 
for the presidency in i860, Abraham Lincoln 
received over thirteen thousand. It was there- 
fore of more than usual interest when the citizens 
of Lancaster were informed on February 20, 1861, 
" It is now certain that Mr. Lincoln will be in 
Lancaster on Friday next. He will arrive about 



LANCASTER AND THE CIVIL WAR 83 

noon and remain but a short time, but probably 
long enough to make a speech to the citizens of 
the Old Guard." 

On his way from the White House from 
Springfield the President-elect passed through 
New York, Trenton, Philadelphia, Lancaster and 
Harrisburg. From the Examiner and Herald of 
Wednesday, February 27, 1 861, we take the fol- 
lowing account of Mr, Lincoln's stay in Lancaster. 

" Previous to leaving Philadelphia the com- 
mittee appointed on behalf of the citizens of 
Lancaster had an interview with Mr. Lincoln and 
were supplied v/ith tickets which enabled them 
to travel on the special train. The committee con- 
sisted of Messrs. O. J. Dickey, Bartram A. 
Shaeffer, C. M. Howell, Robert H. Long, John 
F. Huber, H. W. Hager, Dr. T. Ellmaker, A. H. 
Hood, J. M. W. Geist, D. Fellenbaum, and E. J. 
Zahm. At all the stations large crowds had as- 
sembled to look at the President-elect. As the 
train neared Lancaster a national salute was fired 
from cannon stationed near the locomotive works. 
The train arrived at about noon. The crowd in 
attendance was immense and had it not been for 
the arrangements made by Captain Hambright 
it would have been impossible for Mr. Lincoln to 
have made his way to the Caldwell House (The 
Brunswick)." Mr. Lincoln passed from, the cars 
to the balcony of the Caldwell House where he 
was introduced to the crowd by Mr. Dickey and 
made the following brief and characteristic speech. 



84 Lancaster's golden century 

He said : " Ladies and Gentlemen of Old Lan- 
caster: I appear not to make a speech. I have 
not time to make a speech at length, and not 
strength to make them on every occasion, and 
worse than all, I have none to make. I come be- 
fore you to see and be seen, and as regards the 
ladies I have the best of the bargain, but as to 
the gentlemen, I cannot say as much. There is 
plenty of matter to speak about in these times, 
but it is well known that the more a man speaks 
the less he is understood, — the more he says one 
thing his adversaries contend he meant something 
else. I shall soon have occasion to speak officially, 
and then I will endeavor to put my thoughts just 
as plain as I can express myself, — true to the 
constitution and union of all the states, and to 
the perpetual liberty of all the people. Until I 
so speak there is no need to enter upon details. 
In conclusion, I greet you most heartily, and bid 
you an affectionate farewell." 

It was indeed Lincoln's farewell to Lancaster, 
for when he passed through here again on April 
21, 1865, his body rested in a heavily draped 
funeral car, and the sorrowing crowds stood with 
uncovered heads while the train passed. But 
between these two events Lancaster showed its 
loyalty to Lincoln and his cause by a remarkable 
response to the call of the Union for troops in 
the war of the rebellion. When Sumter was 
fired on, and Lincoln called for 75,000 volun- 
teers, the enrollment in Lancaster commenced at 



LANCASTER AND TPIE CIVIL WAR 85 

once. Within less than a week the Lancaster 
Fencibles and the Jackson Rifles went to Harris- 
burg and were made a part of the First Regiment. 
Within a month thirty-two companies were 
formed in the city and county. All through the 
war at every call there was a ready response. 
The well known 79th Regiment commanded by 
Col. Hambright was composed wholly of volun- 
teers and took part in the battle of Chickamauga, 
and in Sherman's march. Soldiers from Lancas- 
ter county were found in sixty other regiments 
from Pennsylvania. They were found also in 
the militia regiments called during the Confeder- 
ate invasions of Maryland and Pennsylvania. 

The greatest excitement prevailed in 1863 just 
before the battle of Gettysburg. On the 27th of 
June, General Early reached York with a force 
of Confederate soldiers and the next day a brigade 
was sent to hold the bridge at Columbia. Several 
companies from Columbia crossed to Wrights- 
ville, but having no artillery they were compelled 
to come back. Col. Prick set the bridge on fire 
in order to prevent it from falling into the hands 
of the southern army. Great alarm was felt. 
Detachments of the southern army had reached 
the Susquehanna and no one could tell how soon 
they might enter Lancaster. Long lines of 
refugees passed through the city, leading horses 
which they sought to save from the invaders. 

Then came Gettysburg and men breathed easier. 
But alas the news came that at Gettysburg, Lan- 



S6 Lancaster's golden century 

caster's great war hero Major General John 
Fulton Reynolds was killed. This worthy son 
of Lancaster was educated in the schools of his 
native city, graduated with honors from West 
Point, was breveted captain for bravery at 
Monterey, and advanced to the position of major 
for gallantry at Buena Vista in the Mexican War. 
At the outbreak of the Civil War he was ap- 
pointed Brigadier-General of volunteers and was 
given the command of the First Brigade of the 
Pennsylvania Reserves. General Pope said of 
him in his report: ''Brigadier General John F. 
Reynolds commanding the Pennsylvania Reserves, 
merits the highest commendation at my hands. 
Prompt, active, and energetic, he commanded his 
division with distinguished ability and performed 
his duties in all situations with zeal and fidelity." 
He was called to Harrisburg to organize the 
75,000 men called out by Governor Curtin in 
1862. After joining the Army of Virginia, he 
fought at the battle of Fredericksburg. On the 
opening day of the battle of Gettysburg he was 
in command of the left wing of the army. He 
knew that General Meade wanted to fight a de- 
cisive battle, so he pushed forward to secure an 
advantageous position. This brought on pre- 
maturely perhaps the great battle of Gettysburg. 
General Reynolds' riding at the head of Wads- 
worth's division, at the head of the column to 
direct and encourage the troops proved to be a 
conspicuous mark for the bullets of skirmishers. 



LANCASTER AND THE CIVIL WAR Sy 

He was shot through the neck, fell mortally 
wounded and died before he could be removed 
from the field. His biographer says, " General 
Reynolds was one of America's greatest soldiers ; 
the men he commanded loved him dearly; he 
shared with them the hardships, toil and danger 
of the camp, the march and the field. He nobly 
laid down his life a sacrifice on his country's altar, 
at the head of his brave troops that victory might 
crown the efforts of those who followed him to 
fight the great battle of the Nation." His body 
was carried to Lancaster and buried in the 
family enclosure in the Lancaster Cemetery on 
the 4th of July, 1863, where a handsome monu- 
ment was later erected to commemorate his 
patriotic services. Every visitor to Gettysburg 
knows of the handsome statue erected to the 
memory of General Reynolds on that immortal 
battle field. 

Would that it were possible to pay just tribute 
to the many noble sons of Lancaster county who 
fought for the Union in the days of the Rebellion. 
The blood of the sons of Lancaster is found on 
every battlefield of the great war. The follow- 
ing are just a few of the regiments in which they 
served, the First Penna., 2nd, 5th, loth, 15th, 
23rd, 30th, 31st, 34th, 45th, 50th, 59th, 77th, 
79th (called the Lancaster County Regiment), 
92nd, 99th, 107th, 113th, 122nd, 135th, 162nd, 
178th, 179th, 182nd, 195th, 197th, 203rd, 207th, 
214th, 215th, Independent Battery I 3rd U. S. 



S8 Lancaster's golden century 

(colored), 2nd militia, 47th militia, 50th emer- 
gency, and a number of others. 

And as to the citizens at home, they gave their 
moral support to the army in the field with won- 
derful enthusiasm. To the women of Lancaster 
belongs the honor of organizing the first society 
to help in the relief of the soldiers during the 
period of the Civil War. Similar societies later 
came into existence in all parts of the country, 
but so far as is known, none preceded the one 
formed here on the 22nd of April, 1861, only ten 
days after the attack on Fort Sumter. On this 
date a meeting of the women of Lancaster was 
held in the Court House, at which it was re- 
solved, '' that an association of ladies be formed 
under the style and title of ' The Patriotic 
Daughters of Lancaster ' for the purpose of min- 
istering to the wants of our heroic volunteers from 
Lancaster City and County." The necessary com- 
mittees were appointed at once, all details ar- 
ranged for the successful carrying out of the plans 
of the association, and without delay the bene- 
volent work of the patriotic girls and women be- 
gan, which continued steadily throughout the war 
to provide the soldiers in the field and the sick in 
distant hospitals with those comforts which the 
government was unable to furnish. 

For a time too the government used the build- 
ings of Franklin and Marshall College and the 
Halls of the Goethean and Diagnothian Literary 
Societies as hospitals for the wounded. 



LANCASTER AND THE CIVIL WAR §9 

The name and fame of Major- General S. P. 
Heintzelman and his services in the Union army 
during the Civil War also belong to the credit 
of Lancaster. Upon the recommendation of 
James Buchanan, this young Manheim boy was 
admitted to West Point and was graduated with 
honors in 1826. He served with distinction in 
the Mexican War. In the Civil War he took part 
in the Battle of Bull Run, and commanded the 
Third and Fourth Army corps in the Seven Days' 
Battle before Richmond. He held high and im- 
portant positions throughout the war, attaining 
the rank of Major- General of Volunteers and 
Brevet Major-General of the Regular Army. 

The veterans of the Union army upon their re- 
turn from the Civil War, already found a project 
on foot among the citizens for the erection of a 
monument in honor of the soldiers and sailors of 
Lancaster county who fell in the service of their 
country. The Patriotic Daughters of Lancaster 
took the lead in this project. It was not how- 
ever until 1874 that the Soldiers and Sailors 
Monument of Lancaster County now standing in 
Centre Square was dedicated. On the four 
pedestals of the monument are four statues repre- 
senting the several branches of the service — the 
infantry, artillery, cavalry and navy. The names 
of the following battle fields are carved in high 
relief: Gettysburg, Antietam, Malvern Hill, 
Vicksburg, Wilderness, Chaplin Hills, Chicka- 
mauga, Petersburg. The shaft is surmounted by 



go 



Lancaster's golden century 



a figure representing the genius of liberty, with 
a shield of victory, bearing the arms of the 
United States and grasping a drawn sword. The 
inscription reads : " Erected by the people of Lan- 
caster County to the memory of their fellow- 
citizens who fell in the defense of the Union in 
the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865." 




rm. 

/ ^^^^-^ 




CHAPTER VI 

NOTABLE MEN AND WOMEN 

EN and women who have risen to the 
rank of distinction have never been 
wanting in Lancaster. The Bench 
and Bar of Lancaster County have 
been conspicuous throughout the Commonwealth 
and the Nation for ability, eloquence and success. 
From here Buchanan went to the presidency and 
Thaddeus Stevens to the leadership in Congress. 
From Lancaster County, Jasper Yeates, William 
Augustus Atlee, Molton C. Rogers, Ellis Lewis 
and J. Hay Brown became Justices of the Supreme 
Court, the last named having just finished a long 
term as Chief Justice. Amos Ellmaker, Thomas 
E. Franklin, Benjamin Champneys and W. U. 
Hensel were Attorney- Generals of the Common- 
wealth. From here Captain Wm. Frazer was 
sent by President Jackson to be one of the Su- 
preme Court Judges for the new territory of Wis- 
consin, and Colonel Reah Frazer became a potent 
factor in the national conventions for a gener- 
ation. The Lancaster Bar has filled the position 
of Deputy Attorney- General of the State accept- 
ably at least thirteen times from the days of Wm. 
Jenkins in 1808 to the appointment of B. J. Myers, 
Esq., of our own time. At present Lancaster 



92 Lancaster's golden centurV 

County is also making its contribution to the State 
in the services of Wm. H. Keller, Esq., Justice 
of the Superior Court. 

Two sons of Lancaster County have graced the 
office of Governor of the State, Simon Snyder in 
1808 and our present Governor, William C. 
Sproul, who was born at Octoraro. The Hon. 
Frank B. McClain filled the positions of Speaker 
of the House and of Lieutenant-Governor of the 
State. Amos H. Mylin was Auditor- General. 
The Hon. W. W. Griest was Secretary of the 
Commonwealth and is serving on important Com- 
mittees in Congress. Worthy of mention, too, is 
the name of Simon Cameron, born in Maytown, 
elected United States Senator in 1856, appointed 
Secretary of War by President Lincoln, and later 
selected as Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia. 

To medicine Lancaster County has contributed 
Dr. John Light Atlee, one of the founders of the 
Pennsylvania Medical Society in 1848 and presi- 
dent thereof in 1857, one of the organizers of the 
American Medical Association and president 
thereof in 1882, professor of Anatomy and 
Physiology in Franklin and Marshall College, a 
man who for sixty-five years practised successfully 
in surgery. Another of the most widely known 
surgeons in the United States, also a son of Lan- 
caster County was Dr. Daniel Hayes Agnew, 
founder of the School of Operative Surgery in 
Philadelphia. Dr. Agnew received his prepara- 
tory course in medicine under his father who was 



NOTABLE MEN AND WOMEN 93 

then a physician of high repute in Lancaster 
County. Few men have received higher distinc- 
tion than he in the medical world. He was one 
of the surgeons who attended President Garfield, 
after he was shot. Then there was Dr. Frederick 
Augusus Muhlenberg, who in earlier days was a 
student under Dr. Benjamin Rush and later be- 
came one of Lancaster's noted physicians; also 
Dr. B. S. Barton who succeeded Dr. Rush. Dr. 
John H. Musser, of Philadelphia, noted specialist 
and Dr. John B. Deaver, of the University of 
Pennsylvania, one of the greatest living authori- 
ties in certain lines of surgery, trace their im- 
mediate ancestry to Lancaster County. 

In contributions to theology, Lancaster has 
maintained a leading place through the labors 
and printed contributions of men who have in- 
fluenced thought in a wide area, notably Dr. John 
W. Nevin, Dr. E. V. Gerhart, Dr. Thomas G. 
Apple, Dr. F. C. Gast, Dr. Wm. Rupp, in a 
former generation. Their work is being con- 
tinued by Dr. George W. Richards, president of 
the Theological Seminary in Lancaster and by his 
colleagues. All these men have made recognized 
contributions to the literature of American 
Theology. 

To education, Lancaster has given the services 
of three State Superintendents of Public Schools, 
James P. Wickersham, E. E. Higbee, and Nathan 
C. Schaeffer; of Thomas H. Burrowes, the father 
of the free school system of Pennsylvania; of 



94 Lancaster's golden century 

Dr. John S. Stahr, for many years president of 
Franklin and Marshall College; of Dr. Henry 
H. Apple, president of the college since 1910, a 
member of the College and University Council of 
Pennsylvania, former president of the Association 
of College Presidents of the State; of John Beck, 
pioneer educator and of his grandson, Professor 
H. H. Beck, whose articles on ornithology have 
been reprinted by the Smithsonian Institute; of 
Dr. H. J. Roddy, who has written an illuminating 
w^ork on the physical and industrial geography of 
Lancaster County ; of Miss Emma Bolenius, whose 
text-books on English are used throughout the 
nation; of Dr. R. K. Buehrle, for many years cit\^ 
superintendent of education, and of Dr. J. P. 
McCaskey, editor for many years of the Penn- 
sylvania School Journal and principal of the 
Boy's High School. 

To scientific scholarship Lancaster has also 
given in the line of National History the services 
of David Ramsay, one of the first American 
Historians, and in the development of the History 
of the Commonwealth, Dr. J. H. Dubbs, Frank 
R. Diffenderfer, Litt.D., the Hon. W. U. Hensel, 
and the Hon. Charles L Landis. Other notable 
names in scholarship are those of Lindley Murray, 
the English grammarian, whose grammar of the 
English language was for years the best authority 
on the subject; of F. V. Melsheimer, the father of 
American Entomology; of S. S. Rathfon, whose 
researches in Entom.ology extended through- 



NOTABLE MEN AND WOMEN 95 

out the world, and who was recognized by numer- 
ous foreign societies for his attainments as a 
naturalist; of S. S. Haldeman, noted naturalist 
and linguist, author of 150 different works, one 
of which on '' Species and their Distribution " was 
favorably commented upon by Charles Darwin in 
the preface of his work '* The Origin of Species " ; 
of John K. Small head Curator of the Herbarium 
of New York Botanical Gardens, author of a 
number of books and hundreds of monographs on 
Botany, one of which, " The Flora of Lancaster 
County " is of especial interest to this community. 

In the field of literature we are proud to men- 
tion that Lloyd Mifflin, one of the masters of 
American song, acknowledged by two continents 
as the foremost living writer of sonnets, is a native 
and resident of Lancaster County. In fiction 
there belong to the credit of Lancaster County 
the realistic and popular novels of Reginald 
Wright Kauffman, the stories of Mary Brecht 
Pulver and John W. Appel's charming narrative 
of " The Light of Parnell." It is also worth not- 
ing that Helen Reimensnyder Martin, one of 
whose works has been dramatised and played by 
Mrs. Fiske, is a native of Lancaster. 

To hymnology Lancaster has given the songs 
of Henry Harbaugh, notably, '' Jesus, I live to 
Thee " ; Muhlenburg's, *' I would not Live Al- 
way '' ; Higbee's Ascension H!ymn " Jesus O'er the 
grave Victorious ", and Miss Alice Nevin's stir- 
ring hymn tune to the words, " The Lord of 
Life is Risen ". 



g6 Lancaster's golden century 

To art, Lancaster has contributed the portrait 
painter Jacob Eichholtz, who was a student under 
Gilbert Stuart and who painted more than 250 
portraits. Among his subjects were Chief Justices 
Marshall and Gibson and many of the foremost 
people of his day. Then there was Lewis Rein- 
gruber, a distinguished fresco painter and decor- 
ator; and Leon Von Ossko, who had a studio in 
Lancaster for twenty years; and J. Augustus Beck, 
who is represented in the Pennsylvania Historical 
Society Galleries by over fifty portraits of promi- 
nent people of the state and in the Washington 
Monument by a group of sculptured figures repre- 
senting " Hippocrates Refusing the Bribe." 
Among the living representatives of Lancaster 
County in the field of art we note Miss Blanche 
Nevin, sculptress of the statue of Muhlenburg at 
the Capitol in Washington, D. C, Helen Mason 
Grose and Helen Thurlow whose delightful il- 
lustrations in leading American magazines were 
largely produced on the soil of Lancaster County. 

Associated with business of a decidedly more 
than local nature are the names of a long list of 
men connected either by birth, training or resi- 
dence with this community. Among those whose 
influence has reached over the widest area are 
Frank W. Woolworth, founder of the Woolworth 
chain of stores, Edwin M. Herr, the head of the 
Westingho'Use Electric and Manufacturing Co., 
and Joseph H. Appel, head of the Wanamaker 
store of New York. Worthy of note, too, is the 



NOTABLE MEN AND WOMEN 97 

fact that Mr. J. W. B. Bausman has served as 
president of the Pennsylvania Bankers' Associa- 
tion and that Mr. Eugene L. Herr as president of 
the American Booksellers' Association and the 
late Isaac H. Weaver as President of the Ameri- 
can Cigar Leaf Tobacco Association. 

To journalism Lancaster has given Colonel J. 
W. Forney, founder of the Philadelphia Press and 
the charmingly intimate essays of '' Bob " Risk. 
To military affairs she has given a legion of 
gallant men from the days when John Joseph 
Henry started out for Quebec and gave us the 
most interesting account v^^ritten of Arnold's ex- 
pedition to the days of Major- General William 
Murray Black, Chief of the Engineers of the 
U. S. Army, senior member of the board charged 
with raising the wreck of the U. S. S. Maine from 
Havana Harbor, awarded the D. S. M. for es- 
pecially meritorious and conspicuous service in 
planning and administering the engineering and 
military railway services during the recent great 
war. 

Next to President Buchanan, probably the most 
widely known names associated with Lancaster 
County are those of Baron Steigel, Robert Fulton, 
and Thaddeus Stevens. We feel that a more de- 
tailed discussion of these characters is justifiable. 

Henry William Steigel came to this country in 
1750 and brought about forty thousand pounds 
with him. He travelled for a time over Penn's 
province in search for a suitable location and of a 



98 Lancaster's golden century 

favorable opportunity for the profitable invest- 
ment of his money. For a time he lived in Phila- 
delphia and while there married the daughter of 
an ironmaster. Then he came to Lancaster county 
and built an iron furnace which he named Eliza- 
beth in honor of his wife. He entered upon the 
manufacture of stoves. Some of them are still 
found with his name upon them. A thriving 
settlement grew up around his furnace. In 1762 
he founded the town of Pvlanheim. Shortly there- 
after he built an imposing structure with brick 
imported from England. This was perhaps the 
most costly residence in Lancaster County at the 
time. The interior of this nobleman's castle was 
elaborately decorated with colored tiles and woven 
tapestries. Over the old-fashioned fireplace were 
square plates of delf set in cement representing 
landscapes. Upon the top of the chateau was a 
balcony upon which a band of musicians would 
be placed to play favorite airs as soon as the 
Baron's return home would be announced by the 
firing of a cannon. In one of the upper rooms 
of the castle, it is said, the Baron would preach 
to his laboring hands on Sunday. About this time 
he established a glass factory of large dimensions, 
also built of imported brick. The purpose of this 
factory was to encourage men to locate in his new 
town. It was the only one in America at the 
time and the wares made in Steigel's glass works 
were considered vei*y superior. Many of these 
wares are still in existence and are highly cher- 



NOTABLE MEN AND WOMEN 99 

ished by antiquarians. After a while, however, 
the limits of his financial ability were reached, 
he lost all his fortune, and was thrown into prison 
for debt. He died in poverty at the age of fifty- 
three. His grave is unknown, but the fame of 
Steigel glass still exists. 

Concerning Robert Fulton, one of the foremost 
living masters of English verse has written the 
following lines: 

" A child of Lancaster, upon this land, 

Here was he born, by Conowingo's shade ; 
Along these banks our youthful Fulton strayed, 

Dreaming of Art. Then Science touched his hand, 
Leading him onward, when, beneath her wand, 

Wonders appeared that now shall never fade : 
He triumphed o'er the winds and swiftly made 

The Giant, Steam, subservient to command." 

Robert Fulton was indeed a child of Lancaster. 
He was born in the southern part of Lancaster 
County. Robert Fulton was indebted for the 
rudiments of a common English education to the 
town of Lancaster. He early bent his energies 
in the direction of drawing and painting. At the 
age of seventeen he was practising that profession 
in Philadelphia. Later he sailed for England, 
continued his study of painting under Benjamin 
West with whom he lived. Even while in Eng- 
land he became interested in the improvement of 
inland navigation and transportation. Then he 
went to Paris to study nigdem languages, mathe- 



100 Lancaster's golden century 

matics and natural philosophy. There he di- 
rected his attention to the application of steam 
for purposes of navigation and was the first who 
successfully applied a powerful engine to this 
branch of human industry. He invented a tor- 
pedo which was rejected by the French and 
English governments. He came to Washington 
and the American government appropriated five 
thousand dollars to enable him to experiment with 
the torpedo. Fulton regarded the torpedo at the 
time as a greater invention than steam navigation 
for he believed it would establish the " liberty of 
the seas." In 1807 he perfected his steamboat for 
navigating the Hudson and in September of that 
year the Clermont made a successful voyage at 
the rate of five miles an hour from New York 
to Albany and back. The triumph of his genius 
was complete and from that day forward the name 
of Fulton was destined to stand enrolled among 
the benefactors of mankind. 

On September 21, 1909, the Lancaster County 
Historical Society arranged a celebration at the 
birthplace of Robert Fulton to Commemorate the 
centenary of the trip up the Hudson River of 
" The Clermont ". On the old stone house in 
which Fulton was born have been placed two 
tablets, the one of dark bronze, bearing a mural 
bust in low relief of Fulton, the other in the 
form of a conventional shield representing the 
Clermont under which is the following inscription : 



NOTABLE MEN AND WOMEN lOI 

Clermont Robert Fulton 1807 

Here, on November 14, 1765, was born 

ROBERT FULTON 

Inventor, 

Who on the waters of the Hudson, 

August II, 1807, first successfully 

applied steam to the purposes 

of navigation. At this place he spent 

the first years of his life. 

Without a monument, future generations would know him. 

Erected by the Lancaster County Historical Society, 

At the Centenary celebration of his Achievement, September, 1909. 

Thaddeus Stevens, " The Great Commoner," as 
men delighted to call him, lived in the city of 
Lancaster during the greater portion of his life. 
He came here in 1842 in the vigor of his intellect 
and manhood, because he desired a larger field of 
operation than was possible in Gettysburg, where 
he had begun his career as a young lawyer. His 
reputation as a brilliant leader had preceded him. 
He had already been a member of the lower 
House of the State legislature and by his elo- 
quence at a critical point in the struggle for the 
common school law of 1834 had won the victory 
for free schools in what he later considered the 
most effective speech he ever made and the 
crowning utility of his life. In Lancaster he was 
nominated by the Whig party and elected to 
Congress in 1848 and at once threw himself into 
the arena as the aggressive foe of slavery. In 
1850 he made his first great speech against the 
slave curse and proved himself a foeman worthy 



102 LANCASTER'S GOLDEN CENTURY 

of the steel of the most prominent men of the 
anti-slavery party. He followed his profession 
as lawyer in Lancaster from 1853 to 1859, and 
was then elected by the Republican party to 
Congress, where he immediately became the 
leader of his party. Throughout the Civil War 
he was chairman of the Committee of Ways and 
Means and one of the most strenuous advocates of 
emancipation. From the beginning of the war 
to the end of his life he was scarcely absent a 
day from his seat in Congress and for most of 
that time his labors were herculean. He was an 
able counselor of President Lincoln and an ardent 
opponent of the reconstruction policy of President 
Johnson. It was Thaddeus Stevens who pre- 
sented in Congress a resolution declaring that 
Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, 
be impeached of high crime and misdemeanors in 
office. After three days of debate the resolution 
passed, but Stevens was broken down in health. 
A month after Congress adjourned in the summer 
of 1868 Stevens was dead. A noted historian 
recently said, '' In the Congress of the United 
States from the time of its first officer, Frederick 
Augustus Muhlenburg, to this day, there was just 
one man who when he occupied a seat in that body 
held more power than any man in the government, 
and that man was a citizen of Lancaster county, 
Thaddeus Stevens." 

In the Lancaster County District the primary 
election for Congressman had been fixed for the 



Notable men and women toj 

end of the week at whose beginning Thaddeus 
Stevens had died. At the election although all 
the voters knew that their representative in Con- 
gress was dead, every vote as a tribute of respect 
was cast for Thaddeus Stevens. A eulogy on the 
dead statesman was pronounced before the Senate 
by Charles Sumner in which the Massachusetts 
Senator said, " Not a child, conning his spelling- 
book, beneath the humble rafters of a village 
school, who does not owe him gratitude." 
Sumner further said, " It is as a defender of 
human rights, that Thaddeus Stevens deserves our 
homage. Already he takes his place among il- 
lustrious names, which are the common property 
of mankind." 

On a monument in a cemetery in the heart of 
Lancaster City at the corner of West Chestnut and 
Mulberry streets, where his body was laid, is the 
inscription composed by the Great Commoner 
himself, 

" I repose in this quiet, secluded spot, not from 
any natural preference for solitude, but, finding 
other cemeteries limited by charter rules as to race, 
I have chosen it that I might be enabled to il- 
lustrate in my death the principles which I have 
advocated through a long life — ^the Equality of 
Man before his Creator ". 

In an address in the House of Representatives 
Stevens had expressed the following wish which 
throws a light on his motives and character : '' I 



i04 Lancaster's golden centurV 

will be satisfied if my epitaph shall be written 
thus : ' Here lies one who never rose to any emi- 
nence, and who only courted the low ambition to 
have it said that he had striven to ameliorate the 
condition of the poor, the lowly, the downtrodden 
of every race and language and color.' I shall 
be content with such an inscription on my humble 
grave." 

In his will, Thaddeus Stevens left money to 
erect, establish and endow an institution for the 
relief of homeless indigent orphans, in which 
needy and ambitious boys should be carefully 
educated in the various branches of English, and 
in all industrial trades and pursuits. With this 
bequest as a nucleus and with later additional 
subscriptions and state grants there was erected as 
a memorial to his distinguished services, the 
Thaddeus Stevens Industrial School, located on 
East King street, Lancaster, Pa. 



^■4t<'i^<<t<'4'^S}in^<^'^''ii^^-^^^^^^^ 




CHRISTOPHER HAGER 




CHAPTER VII 



CENTENARY BUSINESS FIRMS 




N no direction has Lancaster made 
greater progress than in the size and 
character of her business houses. The 
city has the unique distinction of hav- 
ing a number of firms that have been in continuous 
existence for over One Hundred Years. Of these, 
at least three or four have been doing business 
under the same family name, at practically the 
same location for a century or more. 

The most recent Lancaster addition to the 
" Centenary Firms and Corporations of the United 
States " is the Department Store of Hager and 
Brother. Founded in 1821, the Hager Store 
enjoys the distinct honor of being the oldest 
Department Store in America, under the same 
family name, ownership and management, con- 
ducting business on the same site throughout the 
whole period of its history. 



io6 Lancaster's golden century 

Just One Hundred Years ago, there appeared 
in the Lancaster Gazette and Farmers' Register, 
issue of Tuesday, October 9, 1821, the following 
notice : 

" Fresh Fall Goods 
C. Hager & Co. 
Respectfully inform their friends and the public 
that they have lately received 

A general and extensive assortment of Dry 
Goods, 

Adapted to the approaching season, which, to- 
gether with a good assortment of 

Queensware and Groceries, 
They are now offering at the most reduced 
price, at their store, corner of the market, form- 
erly occupied by David R. Barton." 

On the basis of this documentary evidence, the 
Hager Store celebrates in this year 1921 the One 
Hundredth Anniversary of its Founding. The 
story of the origin and growth of the Hager Store 
is typical of the substantial and remarkable com- 
mercial growth and development of Lancaster. 
This unbroken record of One Hundred Years, 
through a half dozen periods of panic and de- 
pression, through the Mexican, Civil, Spanish- 
American and World Wars, is a remarkable tri- 
bute to the ability, industry and integrity of the 
four generations of men who have successively 



CENTENARY FlkMS tb'} 

had In charge the development of this successful 
commercial enterprise. 

The Hager family has been one of the most 
honored and respected in Lancaster for a period 
of one hundred and fifty years. Christopher 
Hager, senior, the founder of the family in 
America, came from Hesse-Darmstadt, and sailed 
from Rotterdam, September 22, 1764, in the ship 
'' Britannia," Captain Thomas Arnot, carrying 
260 passengers. He at once settled in Lancaster, 
where he resided until his death. Here he 
married Caroline Biehl, daughter of Philip Biehl. 
The records show that he owned considerable land 
in and about Lancaster. From 1778 until 1807, 
he resided at the northeast corner of East King 
and Christian streets, which property was then 
sold to Robert Coleman, and later became the 
home of James Buchanan. Mr. Hager was a 
member of Trinity Lutheran Church, and is buried 
in the old graveyard, in the rear of the church, on 
Mifflin street. 

The youngest son, named after his father 
Christopher Hager, was the founder of the Hager 
Store. Christopher Hager was so closely identi- 
fied with every phase of the advancing life of 
Lancaster up to the time of his death in 1868, that 
it is well worth while to enumerate some of the 
activities in which he was engaged. He was al- 
together a remarkably sagacious and progressive 
merchant, banker and citizen, noted for his in- 
tegrity and public spirit. 



loS LANCASTER'S GOLDEN CENtURV 

Just One Hundred Years ago, under the sign 
of C. Hager & Co., he opened the doors of his 
place of business in a store room twenty by 
twenty-five feet, located on the corner of West 
King and Market streets, in the upper south- 
eastern portion of the present Hager Building. 
There was a small warehouse in the rear for stor- 
age purposes. Four times a year he went to the 
Philadelphia market. As auction sales were fre- 
quent in those days, he often bought quantity lots 
of merchandise. Two purchases of this kind are 
worthy of mention : the one, a hundred hogs- 
heads of molasses, was strung around the curb of 
West King street for half a square, in lieu of a 
better place for storage. The other a full cargo 
of coffee, which had become drenched, though not 
damaged by sea water, was quickly bought in by 
the good housewives, who appreciated a bargain 
a hundred years ago, even as they do now. Up 
to 1834 goods were brought from Philadelphia 
over the King's Highway in the famous Cones- 
toga Wagons, with their blue-painted bodies, 
white tops and teams of sturdy horses equipped 
with bells. Lancaster was a stage town, which 
meant in those days great bustle and activity. 

The business of Christopher Hager flourished 
and became a recognized store, especially on the 
first day of April, the great settlement day in Lan- 
caster County. Banks were few in those days, and 
actual money was used for adjusting accounts. 
The Hager Store was one of the principal meeting 



CENTENARY FIRMS iO§ 

places for people making their settlements, and 
became somewhat of a private banking establish- 
ment. As the young merchant developed a reputa- 
tion for probity, the substantial farmers loaned 
their surplus cash to him, realizing that it would 
be secure. Purchase terms of credit then prevail- 
ing were six months, with the privilege of an 
additional six months. Gold payments were al- 
ways made by C. Hager, and this fact, particularly 
during the era of '' shinplasters " gave his house 
unlimited credit. In 1846 Christopher Hager took 
his son, John C. Hager, into partnership, under 
the firm name of C. Hager and Son. After this 
the store was much enlarged, and the business was 
confined to the selling of dry goods and men's 
clothing. 

In 1848 Christopher Hager was chosen presi- 
dent of the Farmers' Bank, and in consequence, 
retired from the mercantile firm. He was presi- 
dent of the Farmers' Bank during the trying 
financial period of the Civil War, and his patriotic 
services in raising the National Loan were con- 
sidered invaluable. In 1856 he changed his resi- 
dence to Abbeville, west of Lancaster. He was 
largely interested in real estate in the southern 
and western parts of the city. It was also largely 
through his instrumentality that the cotton mill 
industries were located in Lancaster, and the Lan- 
caster Locomotive Works. It was because of his 
interest that the Fulton Opera House was first 
built. He was for many years a trustee of Frank- 



it6 Lancaster's golden cENtURl»r 

lin and Marshall College, and was a member of 
the Building Committee when the first college 
buildings were erected in Lancaster. He was 
Treasurer of Lancaster County, elected on the 
Whig Ticket. He was so enthusiastic for the 
election of Henry Clay to the presidency that tra- 
dition says he bet his whole store on the election 
of Clay and lost. The winner, however, returned 
the store out of pure joy in the satisfaction of 
winning. At the dissolution of the Whig party, 
his sympathies carried him into the Republican 
ranks. 

Christopher Hager was in every respect a 
representative of the highest and finest type of 
business man that Lancaster has produced. He 
not only prospered in his own business, but he 
was ever willing and ready to give his time and 
energy to public interests. He had a wide ac- 
quaintance. He was on intimate terms with Gov- 
ernor Curtin during and following the Civil War. 
He was a warm personal friend to President 
James Buchanan, and was on the same intimate 
terms with Thaddeus Stevens. When Christopher 
Hager died in 1868, the Philadelphia Press said, 
'' The announcement of the death of Christopher 
Hager at Abbeville, Lancaster, will be received 
with regret throughout the state. One of the 
oldest and most substantial citizens of Lancaster 
county, intimately connected with all its public 
movements, his business relations were extended 
generally throughout the Commonwealth. Many 



CENTENARY FIRMS III 

of the chief local improvements of his native city 
are mainly attributed to his enterprise and public 
spirit. During the struggle for national exist- 
ence, he was at all times, in his county, one of the 
first men looked to for counsel or aid in every 
emergency." 

In 1853, the first, second and third sons of 
Christopher Hager formed a partnership, and 
the firm name was changed to Hager and Broth- 
ers, and finally, upon the death of Henry W. 
Hager, to Hager and Brother. 

John C. Hager, the eldest son of Christopher 
Hager, after having worked in his father's em- 
ploy for half a dozen years, was, in 1846 at the 
age of twenty, given a partnership interest in the 
business, later assuming for several years entire 
management, and after 1853, continuing as the 
head of the firm until his death in 1897. After 
the death of Christopher Hager, the eldest son 
John was asked to accept the presidency of the 
Farmers' National Bank, which position he de- 
clined, owing to the pressing nature of his other 
business interests. He was largely interested in 
real estate in Lancaster City, and township. 
The development of the western part of Lancaster 
is largely due to his activity. His public interests 
were many and varied. He took a prominent part 
in all those practical interests that made for the 
good of the community, in church, education 
and business affairs. He was one of the organ- 
izers and president of the Lancaster Board of 



112 Lancaster's golden century 

Trade. He was a trustee of Franklin and Mar- 
shall College, and of Trinity Lutheran Church. 
He was one of the pioneers of the street railway 
system in and about Lancaster. In every sense 
of the word, he was a good type of Christian 
gentleman, representative citizen and active busi- 
ness man, the soul of integrity. 

Charles F. Hager, the second son of Christopher 
Hager, became a partner of the firm in 1853. As 
a boy, after a preliminary education in the local 
schools, he entered the Conestoga Cotton Mills, 
and helped in putting through the pickers the 
first bale of cotton, manufactured in Lancaster. 
After becoming a partner of the firm of Hager 
& Brothers he became the buyer for the store. 
He constantly visited the metropolitan wholesale 
markets, and his business ability, integrity and 
genial disposition made him a host of friends at 
home and abroad, which proved an important 
factor in the expansion of the business. He was 
also a director of the Farmers' National Bank, and 
one of the organizers of the Stevens House Hotel 
Co. After the death of his father, he purchased 
the family homestead at Abbeville. 

Henry W. Hager, the third son of Christopher 
Hager, received his business training in his fath- 
er's store, and was a member of the firm from 
1853 until the time of his enlistment during the 
Civil War, when he served as First Lieutenant 
in Company B, Second Pennsylvania State Volun- 
teers. After the war he returned to his place in 



CENTENARY FIRMS 113 

the firm. He died at the age of 34, while serv- 
ing as Postmaster of Lancaster City. 

The fourth son of Christopher Hager, Edward 
F., while not a member of the firm of Hager and 
Brother, was connected with the firm of W. L. 
Strong & Co., New York. Colonel Strong was 
afterwards made mayor of New York. Edward 
F. Hager had a splendid record in the Civil War, 
serving as First Lieutenant Co. B 122nd P. V. L, 
and seeing active service at Chancellorsville and 
elsewhere during the trying days of the rebellion. 
He also recruited, and was Captain of Co, A, 
50th Regiment, Pa. Militia. 

Then comes the third generation, linking hands 
with the second, and furthering the work estab- 
lished by the first. Such is the privilege of the 
present senior members of the Hager Store. 
They worked hand in hand with their fathers, and 
in their own day assumed the responsibilities 
themselves. During the Seventies and Eighties 
under progressive management the business pros- 
pered and grew. In 1885, partnership interests 
were given to John C. and Walter C, sons of 
John C. and Charles F. Hager, and in 1889 to 
William H., son of John C. Hager. 

At the time Walter C. Hager entered the firm 
of Hager and Bro., Christopher Hager, son of 
Henry W. Hager and John C. Hager, Jr., son of 
John C. Hager, were also given a partnership 
interest, but later they left the partnership to en- 
gage in other lines of business. In 1897 upon the 



114 LANCASTER'S GOLDEN CENTURY 

death of the senior partners, John C. and Charles 
F. Hager, sole control and ownership was assumed 
by Walter C. and William H. Hager, who con- 
stituted the firm of Hager and Brother up to 
recent times, when the two sons of William H. 
Hager were added to the firm. 

The personnel of the firm of Hager and Brother 
now is Walter C. Hager, William H. Hager, and 
his two sons Edward T. and William H. Hager, 
Jr., the sons representing the fourth generation 
of the business. 

Walter C. Hager, son of Charles F. Hager, 
entered the employ of Hager & Son in 1876. 
About 1884, he was given a partnership interest, 
and upon reorganization in 1898, he continued 
a member of the firm, and is to-day the senior 
member of the business. In local affairs Walter 
C. Hager has been active in many public enter- 
prises. For a number of years he served as 
Treasurer of the Lancaster Charity Society, now 
the Community Service Association. He also 
served for some time as a director in the Young 
Men's Christian Association. From the start, he 
was an interested and active member of the Lan- 
caster Historical Society. He has prepared and 
read several valuable papers before the Histori- 
cal Society, dealing with subjects of an artistic 
nature. He was vice-chairman of the committee 
under whose auspices the Loan Exhibition of 
Historical and Contemporary Portraits illustrat- 
ing the Evolution of Portraiture in Lancaster 




p^ 



CENTENARY FIRMS Il5 

County, was made possible in 191 2. He has been 
interested in promoting a number of benevolent, 
educational and artistic projects in the community. 

The second member of the present firm of 
Hager and Brother, is William Henderson Hager, 
son of John Christopher Hager, and Margaret 
Henderson Hager. He graduated from Franklin 
and Marshall College in 1885, and entered the em- 
ploy of Hager and Brother as clerk in the autumn 
of that same year. Under the teaching of his 
father, he gained a thorough knowledge of the dry 
goods business, merchandising, finance and man- 
agement. In 1890 he was given a partnership in 
the firm. In 1896 he was practically the manag- 
ing head of the business, owing to his father's ill 
health. In 1898 (his father John C. Hager and 
uncle Charles F. Hager having died during the 
year 1897) the firm was reorganized, and he con- 
tinued business in partnership with his cousin, 
Walter C. Hager, the firm name of Hager and 
Brother being continued. 

William H. Hager has taken an active part in 
community interests, including the business, civic, 
social, educational and benevolent enterprises of 
his city. In 1899 he served two years as president 
of the Lancaster Board of Trade, and served for 
a number of years as Director of the Lancaster 
Chamber of Commerce. In 1920 he was elected 
president of the newly-organized Pennsylvania 
Retail Dry Goods Association. In February 
1 92 1 he was elected a director of the National 



ii6 Lancaster's golden century 

Retail Dry Goods Association. He is a trustee 
of Franklin and Marshall College, and is the third 
generation of his family serving on the Buildings 
and Grounds Committee of that institution. He 
is a member of Trinity Lutheran Church, of the 
Board of Trustees of the Lutheran Theological 
Seminary at Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, and of the 
Executive Board of the United Lutheran Church 
of America. He is also an incorporator of the 
Lancaster Law and Order Society; an independ- 
ent Republican in local and national affairs. 

At a " welcome home " party, given by the 
Hager Beneficial Association of the Hager Store 
at the Iris Club in the Spring of 1920, for Mr. 
Walter C. Hager, who had just returned from an 
extended visit to California, it was announced that 
Edward T. Hager, son of William H. Hager had 
been given a partnership interest in the firm of 
Hager and Brother. 

It is worth noting that this marked the entrance 
of the fourth generation into the business manage- 
ment of this well-known department store. 

Edward T. Hager is a graduate of Franklin 
and Marshall College, class of 19 14. After spend- 
ing more than a year in the employ of Hager and 
Brother, he was engaged in active service on the 
Mexican border, as First Lieutenant in the 4th 
Infantry, of the Pennsylvania National Guard. 
After another brief period with Hager and 
Brother he entered the service of the United States 
Government as a member of the Pennsylvania 



CENTENARY FIRMS 117 

National Guard, and went overseas with the 28th 
Division, as First Lieutenant of the 107th Machine 
Gun Battalion. He took part in the major en- 
agements fought by the Iron Division, up to the 
day of the armistice, and returned with his divis- 
ion from France in May, 191 9, when he was 
given an honorable discharge from the service. 
He again took up his position with Hager and 
Brother. He is Vice- Commander of the Ameri- 
can Legion, Post No. 34. 

In the month of February, 192 1, announce- 
ment was made to the employees of Hager and 
Brother by William H. Hager that his second 
son, William H. Hager, Jr. had been given an 
interest in the partnership of Hager and Brother. 
William H. Hager, Jr., of the class of 191 8, 
Franklin and Marshall College, left college near 
the close of his junior year, in order to enter the 
Students' Military Training Camp at Fort 
Niagara, there receiving his commission as second 
lieutenant. He w^ent overseas with the 316th In- 
fantry of the 79th Division, American Expedi- 
tionary Force, and saw active service in the 
Argonne-Meuse Sector. Later, physical disabil- 
ity incapacitated him for further service with his 
regiment. He returned to the United States late 
in December 191 8, and was given an honorable 
discharge from the army on January 10, 1919. 
He is a member of the American Legion. His 
son William H. represents the fifth generation. 

With each advancing generation, the Hager 



ii8 Lancaster's golden century 

Store has kept pace with the growth and the needs 
of the community it serves. In 1903, the firm 
erected a three-story building with basement, add- 
ing about 18,000 feet of floor space. In 1906 a 
fourth story was built to the main back building, 
adding 7,000 square feet of floor space. In 1 910 
the front building was torn down, the firm con- 
tinuing to do business (growing all the while) 
during the period in which the present modem 
handsome structure was erected. The present 
store building has a frontage of 63)^ feet by 230 
feet in depth, is five stories high in front, and has 
four stories in the rear. There is a large ware- 
house adjoining, a part of which is used by the 
business. The store is thoroughly equipped with 
up-to-date fixtures, tube cash system and sprinkler 
system. The business is run under an eflicient 
department plan, having thirty-eight departments. 

The personnel of the Hager Store is made up 
of 23 executives, including a corps of 16 buyers, 
with a force of people numbering 250 at the 
maximum. An educational director devotes all 
her time to the various duties of her position. The 
store presents an atmosphere of congeniality and 
refinement, an unmistakable quality of good taste 
and well-ordered arrangement. 

Group insurance is part of the store's system. 
Policies varying from $500.00 to $1,000.00 are 
given to the workers, after they have been in the 
employ of the store one year. The amount is 
based upon their term of service. A bonus com- 



CENTENARY FIRMS 11^ 

mission plan is in force, and is additional to the 
salaries of the workers. 

The Hager and Brother Beneficial Association 
is a thriving organization, supported by the work- 
ers of the store and the firm. The association 
pays both sick and death benefits. 

The Hager Store is a member of an efficient 
buying organization in New York City, the Diy 
Goods Alliance. 

The Hager Store is a public institution, typical 
of all that is best in Lancaster. Like the City of 
Lancaster, it is full of shadows of the great figures 
of the past, yet it has the bloom of an eternal 
youth. The power and vigor of the men who 
were the originators and the inspiring soul of the 
enterprise abides in those who are carrying for- 
ward the work. The celebration of the looth 
Anniversary of the Hager Store, and its entrance 
into the " Centenary Firms and Corporations of 
the United States " is an event of truly historical 
significance for the city and county of Lancaster. 

The Demuth Tobacco Shop on East King street, 
is another Centenary Firm. Established in 1770, 
it is the oldest tobacco shop in the United States. 
It was started in the Province of Pennsylvania by 
Christopher Demuth, the paternal great-grand- 
father of the present proprietor, Henry C. 
Demuth. This store has been for a hundred and 
fifty years a place where men were wont to gather 
•and discuss matters of large and small concern. 
" Years ago," says the historian, '' the aristocrats 



120 Lancaster's golden century 

of an early day, soldiers and statesmen, wits and 
beaux, lawyers, doctors and parsons, gathered 
there to discuss affairs of state and of society, of 
funds and finance, law, literature, picnics and 
politics." The Demuth store is one of Lancaster's 
most interesting and characteristic establishments. 
It has kept pace with the growing spirit of every 
generation, but it has lost little of its ancient flavor. 

The oldest continuous business firm in Lan- 
caster is the Steinman Hardware Company, estab- 
lished in 1744, and still doing business at the 
original location. It is undoubtedly the oldest 
hardware store in the United States. Among the 
list of names taken from one of the old ledgers of 
patrons of tlie store, prior to 1760, is the name of 
George Ross, and of other men well known in 
their day. Many of the articles sold in the store 
prior to 1760 were manufactured in a shop lo- 
cated in the rear thereof, and practically all were 
handmade. In 1760, according to the Steinman 
records, two horseshoes cost as much as thirty 
shoes now, and *' sundry nails " as much as one 
half keg now. A cord of hickory wood cost $2.00, 
while a quart of rum cost 32c. It is said that the 
present ledger of the company contains the names 
of many whose ancestors dealt with the firm more 
than one hundred and fifty years ago. Until the 
death of George Steinman, a member of that 
family had always been connected with this firm. 

Another business house continuing for over a 
centuiy, practically under the same name, though 



CENTENARY FIRMS t^t 

not on the exact location throughout its whole 
history, is the Heinitsh Drug Store. This firm 
started business in 1780, importing drugs and 
medicines from London and Amsterdam. The 
business was moved to its present stand, 16 East 
King street, in 184 1. The store enjoys the repu- 
tation of having been in one family longer than 
any other drug store in the United States. 

The first among the banking houses of Lan- 
caster to pass the century mark is the Farmers' 
Trust Company. It was founded as the Farmers' 
Bank of Lancaster in 1 8 10, chartered as the 
Farmers' National Bank of Lancaster in 1864, 
and incorporated under its present title in 1904. 
For more than 100 years it has maintained in un- 
broken succession the confidence of the commun- 
ity and served the best business and professional 
interests of the city and county of Lancaster. 

At least two of Lancaster's newspapers have 
been in existence for over a hundred years, and 
the third is running not far from the centenary 
line. The Journal was established in 1794, and 
the Intelligencer in 1 799. These two later merged 
under the name of the latter, but to-day again 
exist as distinct newspapers. The Examiner- 
New Era recently celebrated the 90th Anniversary 
of the founding of the Lancaster Examiner in 
1830, which in 1834 became the Examiner and 
Herald. The founding and the development of 
these old newspapers forms one of the most inter- 
esting pages in the Golden Book of Lancaster. 




CHAPTER VIII 

THE SPIRIT OF LANCASTER 



HE story of Lancaster relates not only to 
the seven generations of men and women 
who for the past two hundred years have 
tilled the fields, turned the wheels of industry, es- 
tablished the arts, founded institutions of learning, 
made laws, planted churches and developed suc- 
cessful building enterprises. It is the story also 
of the 55,000 men and women who live in Lan- 
caster City to-day, of the 175,000 who inhabit the 
county, who are planning greater things for the 
Lancaster of to-morrow. 

That they have the spirit of industry is evi- 
denced by the fact that for fifty years Lancaster 
County has led the 3000 counties of the United 
States in the value of its cereal products, raised 
on the 11,000 farms into which the county is 
divided. The aggregate value of crops for the 
county represents the enormous sum of 30 millions. 
The total volume of business in live-stock in Lan- 
caster, which is considered the largest market for 
the sale of cattle for feeding purposes east of 
Chicago, amounted in one year to over 22 million ; 



THE SPIRIT OF LANCASTER 1^3 

more than 213,000 head of live-stock having been 
sold in the Lancaster market in one year. Lan- 
caster County too has been noted for the fact 
that it raises nine-tenths of the state production 
of tobacco, the crops running over 10 million. 

The spirit of industry is also seen in the rapid 
strides made by the 200 manufacturing industries 
of the city, shipping over 100 million dollars 
virorth of Lancaster manufactured goods annually, 
paying over 16 million in wages every year to the 
thousands of employees, 96 per cent of whom 
are American born. 

The home of the famous Hamilton Watch is in 
Lancaster. This firm with its 750 employees 
builds 400 high-grade timepieces per day for 280 
days a year, giving it an output of two million 
dollars a year, which represents a production of 
more high-grade watches than are issued by any 
other factory in the United States. Lancaster 
has also the largest linoleum plant in America, 
and the longest silk mill in the world. It is the 
eentre of the umbrella industry of America. It 
has great cotton mills that produce the well- 
known '' Lancaster Ginghams." It would be pos- 
sible to name a hundred diversified industries for 
which the city and county are noted, including 
asbestos products, ball-bearings, forges, locks, 
druggist preparations, electrical a;pparatus, boxes, 
soaps, structural and ornamental steel and iron, 
woodwork, motor trucks and great quantities of 
cigars and candy. 



1^4 Iancaster's golden century 

These industries are made possible largely by 
two factors, the Holtwood dam, and excellent 
transportation facilities. The Holtwood dam is 
probably Lancaster County's greatest achievement 
in applied science. By harnessing the Susque- 
hanna more power is produced than by any other 
single plant east of the Mississippi and south of 
Niagara. As far as transportation facilities are 
concerned, Lancaster is located on the line of 
two railroads, has the Lincoln Highway passing 
through it, and is the center of a network of 1 80 
miles of trolley lines which extend to every part 
of the county, and connect with Philadelphia, 
Reading, Harrisburg and Lebanon. 

That Lancaster has the spirit of thrift as well as 
that of industry is seen in the fact that the actual 
bank assets show the banking wealth of Lancaster 
to be greater than that of 14 sovereign states of 
the United States, taken separately. The city 
has six national banks and seven trust companies. 
The bank clearings of the fifty banks for the entire 
county show that over 137 million passed over the 
counter last year. 

The spirit of patriotism in Lancaster evidenced 
in America's Seven Wars, was never more fully 
revealed than in the part that the present gener- 
ation of Lancastrians have taken in the Spanish- 
American War and in the Great World War. 
Lancaster County gave 5,787 men to the service 
in the recent Great War among whom were so 
many volunteers that Lancaster's quota was filled 



THE SPIRIT OF LANCASTE:R 12^ 

before the first draft went into effect. 240 Lan- 
caster City and County boys laid down their lives 
in the world conflict. 48 physicians of the city 
and county served in the war, and 27 others made 
application for admission to the Medical Corps 
but were rejected. Major General William 
Murray Black, Brigadier General W. H. Rose and 
Lieut.-Col. John H. Wickersham saw the light of 
day in Lancaster County and all forged their way 
to high eminence as engineers. 

Brigadier General Robert C. Davis, also a 
native of Lancaster, rose to be Chief of Staff to 
General Pershing and Adjutant of the American 
Expeditionary Forces. Among the many others 
who were honored by high commissions were 
Brigadier General E. C. Shannon, Col. F. S. Foltz, 
of Fort Oglethorpe, Col. Wm. S. McCaskey, 
Lieut.-Col. Theodore B. Appel and Lieut-Col. 
J. H. Steinman. Among those who led Lan- 
caster troops were Captain W. C. Rehm, Cap- 
tain J. N. Lightner and Captain C. P. Stahr. 
Among the many brave lads of Lancaster who 
gave their lives in the world war notable and 
typical are the names of Captain H. H. Worth- 
ington and Lieut. Daniel S. Keller. Worthy of 
record too is the fact that Boone Bowman, a Lan- 
caster boy in the French Army, carried the first 
American flag across the German lines in the 
Great War. In the navy we were represented 
by Lieut-Commander E. E. Skeen, Lieut. H. N, 
Howell, Lieut. D. H. Frantz and a number of 



126 Lancaster's golden century 

ensigns. Lancaster County contributed over 43 
million dollars in support of the great struggle, 
a per capita equivalent of $260 for every man, 
woman and child. The treasure in blood and 
money given by the citizens of Lancaster will some 
day be written in the records of a great war 
memorial building. Would that one could speak 
of the magnificent work of the Red Cross under 
the leadership of Mr. H. W. Hartman, and his 
army of helpers; and of the many services of our 
" War Mayor " the late H. L. Trout and of those 
whom he called to his assistance. 

Lancaster has the spirit of good will and hos- 
pitality. Nowhere is there a more energetic re- 
sponse to every worthy appeal for the help of 
humanity. The charity of the people of Lan- 
caster County is proverbial. Public spirit and 
philanthropy is- manifest in such gifts as those of 
Mr. H. S. Williamson, a prince of good will, 
whose name will live as long as Lancaster exists, 
in the names " Williamson Field " and '* William- 
son Park." Then there is the name of Catharine 
H. Long, associated with what is destined to be- 
come one of the most beautiful parks in the state, 
and with a home for the aged which has already 
proved a blessing to many. 

There is to be found in Lancaster a love of 
education and a spirit of culture that is the result 
of generations of growth. Besides 22 school build- 
ings and 4 parochial schools we have in the city, 
Franklin and Marshall College, a Theological 



THE SPIRIT OF LANCASTER 12/ 

Seminary, Franklin and Marshall Academy, 
Shippen School for Girls, Thaddeus Stevens 
Industrial School and Yeates School. The 
Bowman Technical School of Watchmaking, En- 
graving and Jewelry is 32 years old, has 115 
students and over 2000 graduates. It has given 
vocational training to a large number of disabled 
soldiers. Lancaster has two handsome high 
school buildings of modern construction. In the 
county is to be found Linden Hall Seminary 
located at Lititz, Pa., one of the very oldest 
girls' schools in America. 

From the days when the old Juliana Library 
in Lancaster was named after the wdfe of Thomas 
Penn to our own time, a taste for books has pre- 
vailed among all orders and ranks of people in 
Lancaster. There are in the city at present the A. 
Herr Smith Memorial Library, The John Watts 
DePeyster Library, and the library of the Theo- 
logical Seminary. These three contain at least 
100,000 volumes. The printing establishments of 
Lancaster turn out more books and magazines of 
a scientific nature than those of any other city 
of her size in the country. 

In the social and literary life of Lancaster there 
are a number of organizations of interest and 
permanent value, such as the Cliosophic Society, 
which for forty-two years has promoted congenial 
literary study and refined social intercourse be- 
tween a number of persons of kindred tastes. The 
Travel Club, the Fortnightly Club, the Present 



128 Lancaster's golden century 

Day Club, the Liberal Club, the Musical Art 
Society are other organizations of similar char- 
acter. The Iris Club has for twenty- five years 
been of great value to the higher life of 
Lancaster. More recent additions to the cul- 
tural life of Lancaster are the Association of 
Organists and the Lancaster Municipal Orchestra. 

The Lancaster Chamber of Commerce has re- 
cently been reorganized with over a thousand 
members. The Rotary, Kiwanis and Quota Clubs 
have rendered great service to the community. 
The Manufacturers' Association has undertaken 
a program of Americanization. 

Lancaster has to-day 63 churches, representing 
practically every denomination. The city has two 
hospitals, equipped with modern appliances, 
maintaining a high record of efficiency. There 
are homes and asylums which provide for young 
and old who need assistance. The charities of 
the city are organized under the leadership of 
Dr. A. V. Hiester, president of the Lancaster 
Community Service Association. The Y. M, C. A. 
and the Y. W. C. A. have large and beautiful 
buildings. They are both bee-hives of activity. 
The Y, M. C. A. celebrated a year ago its 
golden jubilee. The efficiency of the organi- 
zation owes a great deal to the services of the 
late James Shand who for many years was the 
president of the Board of Trustees as well as to 
the fine enthusiasm of its present secretary, Mr. 
E. B. Searles. Throughout the great war the 



THE SPIRIT OF LANCASTER 129 

Y. M. C. A. building in Lancaster was the civic 
center and rallying point of the community. On 
the site of the old historic Shippen home on East 
Orange street the citizens of Lancaster erected a 
few years ago a handsome building for the use 
of the Y. W. C. A. This organization under the 
leadership of Miss Pratt has proved one of the 
most valuable assets to the higher and better life 
of the community. 

Lancaster has many beautiful residences and 
many handsome suburban homes. A large per 
cent of the population own the houses in which 
they live. There are also a number of handsome 
apartments in the city. Among the hotels are to 
be noted the Brunswick on the site of the former 
Caldwell House, the Stevens, named after the 
great Commoner, the Wheatland and the new 
Weber. In the corridor of the Brunswick is a 
tablet presented by the late W. U. Hensel and 
unveiled by the Lancaster Historical Society to 
commemorate the fact that from the balcony of 
the former hotels on the same site Abraham 
Lincoln, Horace Greeley, James Buchanan, Win- 
field Scott Hancock and Theodore Roosevelt had 
delivered addresses. It appears that Lancaster 
has entertained seven men who at the time of their 
visit here or shortly thereafter became President 
of the United States, and at least three others who 
were nominated for that high office but failed of 
election. 

The city owes much of unalloyed joy to its five 



I30 Lancaster's golden century 

beautiful parks. These breathing places provide 
air, sunshine and the enjoyment of nature for the 
people of Lancaster. 

This quaint old town of two hundred years 
standing is indeed an interesting and beautifully 
located spot. As you walk the streets of Lan- 
caster, a thousand busy thoughts rush on the mind, 
a thousand images of the past come up before you. 
Whatever faults the community has — and like all 
other types, it is irregular in its development — 
the stranger will find here no lack of the atmos- 
phere of friendliness, the visitor will feel the 
pervasive influence of hearty cordiality. There 
is a mingling here of the old and of the new, 
of the yesterday and of the to-morrow ; there is a 
softness in the sky in May, a mellowness in the air 
in October. If you will look into the soul of 
this old city, you will find there a spirit of hos- 
pitality and brotherliness which will make you 
feel at home at the ends of the earth. There 
are handsomer, cleaner, richer, and more intellec- 
tual cities than Lancaster, but there is none which 
has more thoroughly developed the resources of 
simple and genuine friendliness. 



